


Draíocht

by jolly_love



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adopted Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore Bashing, Creature Fic, Dark Harry Potter, Fairies, Horcruxes, M/M, Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, Mystical Creatures, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Alternating, Politics, Tags Are Hard, Vampire Severus Snape, Vampires, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:00:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 23,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26395297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jolly_love/pseuds/jolly_love
Summary: What happens when Dumbledore’s spy Mrs. Figg dies without anyone being informed and Harry Potter’s new neighbours turn out to be a gay wizard couple of a vampire and a haltija. And what happens when they take a liking to Harry and decide to teach him that life and magic isn’t separated into light and dark?
Relationships: Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter
Comments: 102
Kudos: 427





	1. Orenda

**Author's Note:**

> I have never written a Harry being adopted, Dumbledore being bad fanfic, so I hope I'm doing this well enough :) I always wanted to write a Dumbledore bashing story line and when this little idea popped into my head, I had to write it down. It's also a creature fic, but I'm not sure yet, if Harry ever turns into a creature. If he does, the tags will show it :)  
> Thanks for your interest.

Orenda - noun. A mystical force present in all people that empowers them to affect the world, or to effect change in their own lives.

It was the first time, Boy had ever witnessed death. Or at least, so he thought. Staring out into the garden while he was standing on his small pedestal so he could clean the dishes, he had always liked to watch Mrs. Figg’s nasty cats. It gave him something to see, while Dudley watched TV. He had the perfect view, sideways, so he could watch without being noticed. And they always fought with each other anyway. It was actually quite fun to watch. But now, there were people there, cleaning out everything. The cats, the furniture, the kitchenware, everything was thrown out and put away rather carelessly in huge white bags.

It only took them about two hours until they were gone and nobody but Boy had seen a thing. First, he had been working in the kitchen, then in the garden. Things needed to be nice, when Uncle Vernon would come home. They had once again a party where Boy had to pretend not to exist. Not that it was hard. He actually preferred it that way – he didn’t had to hide in his cupboard but was imprisoned in the attic, where he could lie in front of the window for all eternity, if it came down to it.

Old Mrs. Figg’s house was empty for about two weeks afterwards. But nobody went to look at it and there was no sign in front of it. However, soon after, on a beautiful day, Boy heard what seemed like a loud car driving down the street. He looked up and saw the most polished and shining red car he had ever seen. He almost couldn’t keep his eyes off of it. But just when a car pulled up to the now nicely cleaned house, the window of Boy’s home opened and a hysterical woman screeched louder than the crows when they were fighting. “Boy!”

Looking up, Boy quickly turned to the window. Aunt Petunia didn’t like to be loud around neighbours so the fact that she was screaming for him, made this an emergency, he was sure.

He hurried through the garden and stood in front of the patio door. If he was working in the garden, he wasn’t allowed back into the house unless he had brushed every small piece of dirt off of him. “Yes, Aunt Petunia?” he asked quietly. She turned to look at him with her red face almost matching the pink flower dress she was wearing to fit in – which she never did with her horse face.

“I ask you to do one thing! _One thing_. And you mess it up! Where are my plates you ungrateful bastard!?”

Boy swallowed and shrugged his shoulders. She wouldn’t believe him anyway. “I put them into the...”

“ _Don’t lie to me!_ Dudley saw you breaking one!” Aunt Petunia glared at poor Boy and if he could, he would have made himself even smaller. It wasn’t true! Dudley broke one. He was trying to push Boy’s head under water in the sink with all the soap end even some forks and knives still in there and while Boy ran away and hid in his cupboard, Dudley broke two plates.

But he couldn’t say that. Dudley was always more trustworthy than he was. Even though Boy rarely spoke and when he did, it was the truth. However, in his short life he had learnt two important things. One: His cousin was always right and two: not to trust adults. They never believed him. It also hadn’t surprised him that Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon kept him in the house most of the time, hidden from any official people. They didn’t want to spend money on him and well, apparently school was money?

While Dudley could already write and read, Harry had to teach himself in his cupboard with books he stole from his cousin. At least he could already count to fifteen _and_ he could cook. That was impressive, right? A six year old shouldn’t be able to cook... or should he?

Aunt Petunia snapped her bony fingers in front of his eyes. “Wake up, Boy! Take the trash out and don’t come back until you finish weeding the garden. We’re going out tonight, so you better finish before we go or you’ll stay out until we’re back.”

Boy nodded and took the garbage, dragging it behind him over the grass and successfully put it into the bin out front. However, he did lose the lid and it made some noise. He quickly caught it and placed it on top of the bin, walking back into the garden and picked up the spray for plants.

Over in Mrs. Figg’s old house, Boy was sure he had seen a window open and he could hear some faint laughter. It seemed as if there was finally some life in there. Mrs. Figg to him had always looked half dead, so he wasn’t surprised when she had died.

Kneeling down, Boy started working through the garden again. Usually, he was much faster, but hearing that he could be alone during the evening made him extremely happy and he didn’t want to work in the area where he could be seen by his aunt or cousin. That had to wait. So for now, Boy was going to work slowly, but carefully.

Well, as the evening came, it was clear to Boy that he wouldn’t finish with the garden. As he had planned, he had done almost two thirds, but around the patio was still a lot of weed left. In all honesty, he had done it on purpose so he could work on it while nobody was home to watch him. Dudley would have probably taken it as an opportunity to hit him and Aunt Petunia seemed to think everything he did was wrong. Maybe it was...

“Boy!”

He flinched when he heard his uncle’s voice and the shovel in his hands fell down against a pot and broke off a tiny bit. Boy widened his eyes and quickly grabbed the thing and put it back, just when Uncle Vernon walked around the corner, glaring at him.

“When I’m calling, you’re standing in front of me! Are we clear, boy?”

Nodding quickly, Boy stood straight and placed his hands behind his back. “Yes, Uncle Vernon. I’m sorry for not listening.”

Uncle Vernon narrowed his eyes. “You better be sorry, Boy. We’re going out now. Make sure to finish everything. There’ll be no food for you.”

He turned around and walked back into the house, while Boy nodded and picked up the shovel, hearing the car doors open and close, chatter and then the engine starting to drive away. At least now, he could work on his own without fearing that someone might try and destroy his progress.

In fact, he was done within an hour and sat down by the street close to the bushes, so people walking and driving by couldn’t see him properly.

And so, he was even more surprised, when he found someone talking to him. “Hi there, young man.” The accent was a little weird, not from London anyway. Boy looked up, intrigued who was talking, when he found the kindest eyes directly on him. They were soft brown, like sand in a desert and the edge was dark, almost black.

“Are you okay, young man?” he asked and Boy frowned slightly.

“Why are you talking to me?”

The man chuckled and looked around. His soft laugh was so warm and welcoming as if he was hugging Boy only through his vocal cords alone. When he finally looked back at Boy, he still had a soft and honest smile. “Well, I’ve seen you working, ever since we moved into that house” he pointed at Mrs. Figg’s old house. “And I think I saw your family drive away and leave you outside. So, I wanted to ask: Are you okay?”

Boy nodded. “They do that. I’m fine, thank you.”

It seemed as if the man was a little surprised by his words, since he didn’t say anything for a short amount of time. That, however, gave Boy time to look at his clothes. They were neat and clean, almost as if they had never seen the light of day or even dirt anywhere.

“What’s your name?” the man asked and once again placed his warm smile on his lips.

Shrugging his shoulders, Boy looked away. He knew this wasn’t his name. Dudley had a name. But his family never bothered telling him. So, calling himself ‘boy’ was easier than to give himself a name – he also didn’t know many names.

The man seemed to understand that Boy didn’t want to talk about names and nodded. “Well, it’s getting quite cold out here, these days. Would you like to come in and have some hot cocoa?” He looked over to the house and Boy followed his gaze where another man showed up by the front door and smiled at the man with the biggest smile Boy had ever seen. The man by the door was wearing a nice cosy dark green sweater with just some ripped jeans.

“Okay” Boy said quietly and got up.

They crossed the street and soon enough, Boy found himself in a beautifully decorated house. Hadn’t they moved in only a few hours ago? And now it was already decorated? They seemed to be working as hard as he was.

The man standing at the front door had slightly pointy ears and seemed a little taller than Uncle Vernon, though that wasn’t a huge achievement. When Boy finally sat down at their kitchen table, the man with pointy ears placed a cup of hot chocolate in front of him.

“Drink, Henry. It’ll help” he smiled and turned around, placing a kiss on the other man’s cheek. Boy watched curiously and frowned.

“I’m not Henry” he said sheepishly and the first man nodded.

He sat down as well, though before he could say anything, the other man placed hot chocolate in front of him too and he chuckled, before taking a sip. Boy looked at his drink and smelled the almost entrancing chocolate. He grabbed his cup and took a sip as well, half expecting his tongue to be burnt, but it didn’t.

“Eric has a gift for guessing people’s names” the man sitting at the table said. “He’s got a talent, though he’s not always right about it.”

Boy caught a twinkle in his eyes which made him smile and he took another sip of his amazing hot chocolate. It was so much better than all that packaged stuff Aunt Petunia would give Dudley, which he occasionally stole just to try.

The man by the stove who seemed to be called Eric rolled his eyes, only for Boy to see, and winked at him. “I am always right. Though, your name we don’t need to guess, Chico.”

Frowning, Boy shook his head. “I don’t know my name. Why do you?”

“Well, where we come from, every child knows your name” the man who wasn’t Eric said and motioned to his own forehead.

Boy didn’t understand. He rubbed his forehead and shrugged his shoulders. Luckily, he had help from Eric, who smiled and seemed to have the same kind of soft, welcoming eyes, though they were deep blue.

“Your name is Harry Potter, Bubsy. Everyone knows who you are because you defeated a very bad and big man when you were a baby. He gave you the scar” Eric pointed at his forehead. He then sighed. “And then you disappeared” he explained.

Boy... or rather Harry widened his eyes. He had a name! And it did feel so... right. “Harry?” he repeated almost awestruck.

Eric nodded and placed a hand over the other man’s mouth, since he had already huffed when Eric talked about him disappearing. There seemed to be something else, though Eric made sure to keep it from him.

“I’m Alamar, by the way” the first man said when he finally removed Eric’s hand. He smirked and took his cup again. “Eric’s my husband.”

The man with pointy ears ruffled through Alamar’s hair and the other man rolled his eyes, as if to show Harry that he hated it, though he didn’t even try to stop it. It was the first time for quite some time that Boy... Harry showed a smile. It was soft and sheepish, but it existed and he immediately felt safe with these two men.

The way they looked at each other was so loving and soft that he had almost asked them if he could stay with them forever. If they could be his parents. But he knew that couldn’t work out.

When he grabbed his mug again, an animal walked into the kitchen purring and Eric chuckled. “Look who finally woke up from her nap, Princess Aurora!”

A faint “Meow” was all that comment got and suddenly, Harry caught eyes of the animal. It looked like a white cat with a light brown tail. The only huge difference was that this cat was actually a brown owl. Or at least it had the head of an owl and the wings of an owl.

As the owl-cat saw Harry, it stopped walking and meowed, before walking closer and purring again. Alamar chuckled. “She likes you. Don’t worry, she doesn’t hurt anyone, you can just pet her.”

Harry looked up and carefully held his hand towards the animal. It purred again, rubbing its owl head on his hand. “What’s that? It looks like a cat and an owl.”

Eric smirked. “She’s a Krimnee.” He placed a bowl of what seemed like small chunks of meat on the floor and the owl-cat meowed and jumped towards the food. “They’re very rare and we saved one of the last living creatures with her. Krimnees have the body of a cat and the wings and head of an owl.” He pointed at the features he explained and finally sat down between Harry and Alamar.

“So, she’s the last one?” Harry asked and looked at the moving tail.

“I think there are about ten or fifteen left, but yes.” Alamar said and leaned back in his chair. “People don’t like them because they’re very peculiar.”

Harry shrugged his shoulders. “So are humans. What’s her name?”

“Aurora.” Eric smirked. “She likes to sleep for almost the whole day. I thought that name suited her.”

Frowning, Harry had to shrug his shoulders. He had never really heard of anyone called Aurora, so why would it suit an owl-cat or Krimnee as it were, was a little confusing for him.

Alamar smiled warmly. “It’s a fairy tale. I’m sure I got the book around here, somewhere.” He got up and walked out of the kitchen, while Harry turned to Eric.

“How are you already finished moving in?” Harry asked intrigued.

Eric chuckled and leaned back in his chair. “Well, you see, Harry. We’re wizards. We can do magic. So moving a home isn’t that much work for us. Alamar and I usually travel around the world; we can do our job from anywhere and... we don’t even have much to begin with.”

Harry stared at him, as if he had been talking in a different language. “Wizards? Like in a fairy tale?”

“Well, yes.” Eric’s eyes were twinkling and he smiled broadly. “Do you want to know a secret, Harry? According to the books, I am a fairy tale character as well!”

“What do you mean?” Harry thought his eyes were about to fall out of his head, when Eric chuckled.

He grabbed the hot chocolate left over from Alamar and took a sip. “I’m a fairy, you know. Actually, I’m a Haltija, but we’re just a sub-species of fairies.”

Harry was gobsmacked and stared at Eric, when he found his pointy ears again. It really did look like the man escaped a fairy tale book. “Is Alamar also a fairy?” he asked.

Eric chuckled. “No!” He looked at the door, where Alamar had left through, before he turned back to Harry. “We fairies need other people or species around us. We hate our own species. Or at least, Haltija do. Other fairies even travel in groups.” He shuddered as if it was the last thing he had ever wanted to do.

“Found it!” Alamar called through the house and walked back into the kitchen with a thin book in his hands. “It’s called ‘Sleeping Beauty’. You’ll like it.”

He sat down and looked at the table, where his hot chocolate had magically changed owners and Eric smirked at his husband when his eyes finally reached him, while Harry tried his hardest not to smile over their actions. Alamar shrugged his shoulders and opened the book to start the fairy tale Harry had never heard.

Listening with wide eyes and the attention of a lioness about to strike, Harry had almost forgotten his real life, when shortly after the end, he heard a car driving by and Eric looked up.

“Your family’s back, Cocoa Puff. We better get you home, before they realize you’re gone” he said and got up.

Harry shook his head. “I don’t want to go back. They don’t even know my name.”

Alamar smiled. “You can always come here, if you want to! If we’re not home, Aurora could always need a little company.”

“And you are very welcome to read the fairy tale books if you want” Eric smiled and kneeled in front of Harry putting his arms out. Harry looked at him sceptically for barely a second, before falling into his embrace. “Don’t worry, Bud, it’s going to be okay. We’re here if you need us. Okay?”

“Okay.” Harry nodded. He now had a name and people who cared about him. His life could only get better from here, right? At least that was what he hoped for, when he hushed into his own garden and presented himself in front of the patio door where Aunt Petunia let him in and shooed him to the shower with the order not to use too much water. Yes, life could only go up from here.


	2. Zemblanity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alamar and Eric try to figure out what brought them here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little sad note that i can't update regularly, as I haven't written more and I don't know when I've got time to write more. But: I like this story and I will be continuing it :) It might just take a few days.

Zemblanity – noun. The inevitable discovery of what we would rather not know; the opposite of serendipity.

While the morning of the next day hadn’t even started, Alamar yawned, feeling cold again. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and sighed, not even willing to open them. The only reason why he was cold again, was that Eric wasn’t back in bed. And after what they had seen yesterday, he knew exactly where to find him.

Sighing yet again, he got up and yawned. Aurora in her soft bed stirred as well and when Alamar stood up, she followed him as well, down the stairs into the barely lit kitchen. And there he was. Eric sat there with a cold cup of tea, an open book, though his eyes were in the distance, not even looking at the book. He stared at the black dot in the table and only awoke from his thoughts, when Alamar kissed the top of his head.

“Morning, Eric.”

Eric jerked and turned around. “I didn’t wake you up, did I?”

“Don’t worry, love.” Alamar smiled lovingly and grabbed himself a cup of tea while re-heating Eric’s as well. Aurora meowed and jumped onto Eric’s lap, rubbing her head on his chin.

“I’m sorry.” Eric sighed and shook his head, while he petted Aurora, who gave him an almost as reproachful look as Alamar was.

Smiling softly, Alamar sat down next to him and placed a calming hand on his arm. “Love, at least now we know why you felt the need to move here. I don’t think it ever was that easy to find a reason for the calling.”

Eric seemed to calm down, as he looked at the book again and nodded, weakly. “Well, there was one other time where my calling was very easy to find.”

Alamar laughed loudly and shook his head. “You’re being too kind, love. We both know it took you quite some time to get me to trust you.”

“But you did. In the end, you know.” Eric quickly turned to look at the front door and then just as quickly back to the book. “He looked so broken.”

Yes. Yes, he did. Little Harry Potter looked broken, hurt and scared. At first he did. Once he had fallen into Eric’s arms without more than a second’s thought, Alamar knew that Harry trusted him with his life. His husband had this secret power. Everyone he seemed to meet, trusted him immediately.

“Darling, will you come back to bed? It’s not even four in the morning.” Alamar got up and pressed a kiss on Eric’s cheek.

“No” Eric shook his head. “I need to figure this out.”

And that was also typical. Alamar nodded and grabbed his jacket. “If you’re staying awake, I will do so as well.”

Looking up, Eric narrowed his eyes. “Are you going to visit them?”

“Yes. I need to see how they treat him and maybe it’ll help put your mind at ease?” Alamar offered and while he closed his jacket, Aurora looked up alarmed and jumped from Eric’s lap to walk to the door, where she sat down and looked at Alamar expectantly.

“Well” Eric turned back to Alamar. “Her action absolutely doesn’t put my mind at ease.”

Nodding, Alamar sighed. “At least I’ve got her for safety. Even though I intended on going there to make you feel good again, it looks like I need to check up on little Harry.”

Aurora meowed and her owl head turned to look at the door, before quickly turning back to Alamar, looking at him expectantly.

“Tell me what you find, love. I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep before you’re both back.” Eric sighed. “And be careful. Aurora wouldn’t walk with you if it’s safe.”

“I know” Alamar smiled and walked to the door. When he opened it, Aurora jumped into the darkness of the night.

Before he could follow her, Alamar heard Eric call out to him: “And don’t drink their blood, Alamar! We don’t want too much interest in us!”

Snorting, Alamar closed the door and walked over the street. The lamps were still out and he followed the weakly glowing Aurora through the set traps. She walked calmly up to their door, where she started playing with a pot next to the door. Well, even if there was a key inside, Alamar didn’t need it. Harry’s family was apparently one that liked traditions: there was a welcome mat.

Well, there was nothing easier. Alamar pressed the door handle and it opened through the power of the welcoming vampire spirit emitting from the door mat. Whoever had invented them and made them normal was Alamar’s favourite person – well right after Eric, of course.

Aurora stopped and turned her head to a heater and hissed at it. Alamar sighed and took out his wand. It was going to be one of these house visits. Magic everywhere. Well, Aurora had found a magical tracker. How he hated these: In all of his life, he had never seen magical trackers work in someone’s favour. Mostly because they could be easily used to keep track of children and people you want supervised.

He placed a stabilizer spell around it and followed Aurora deeper into the house, placing all kinds of stabilizers all around the home. All in all, he had found about fifty-five magical trackers. That was excessive even for a detail oriented person.

Alamar didn’t like to think about it, but he was sure old Dumbledore had placed them there. That man went to all kinds of lengths to keep his picture perfect persona away from any harm. So, checking up on little Harry was the best way to see if his trophy boy would follow him.

When he passed the kitchen, Aurora hissed again and her wings were suddenly in the air as she stared at a picture on the counter. Such an aggressive behaviour wasn’t normal for her, so Alamar pointed his wand at the picture of the family minus Harry and found a very strong hateful charm on it. It was supposed to divide little Harry from his family.

“No wonder they hate each other” Alamar whispered and sighed when he found a tracker on the picture as well. He couldn’t take away the spell without notifying whoever had placed it there. Well, honestly, who else could have put it there but Dumbledore?! “Sorry, Aurora, I can’t take it away. You need to ignore it.”

She snarled and walked by the photo with hackles high up into the air. Alamar sighed and followed her, while she tapped around the corner and finally sat down in front of the stairs and looked at a small door.

Alamar raised his eyebrows. An uneasy feeling came over him as he reached out and pulled the hidden door handle. The complete darkness inside quickly made his vampire eyes adjust. What he saw destroyed every hope he had for the little child he had seen yesterday.

Little Harry lay in a mattress, barely fitting in the cupboard and not suiting his size at all, rolled into a ball and eyes closed hard. On the wall behind him stood with child’s scribbling ‘Boy’s room’, though ‘boy’ was crossed out and he had written ‘Harry’ on top of it.

Aurora meowed painfully and jumped on top of the mattress, when Harry ripped his eyes open and sat up, shook. Alamar smiled weakly and illuminated the tip of his wand softly, just so that Harry could see him. Aurora purred loudly and rubbed her head on his face, while Alamar sat down carefully.

“I’m sorry, Harry, I just wanted to make sure you were okay. Eric was worried” he explained. “Well, I was too” he quickly added and chuckled softly. He then looked at Aurora who licked Harry’s cheek, while the little boy widened his eyes and placed his arms around her as if she was his favourite stuffed animal. He seemed to have soft spot for her as well. 

“I’m fine” Harry said and smiled down at Aurora, petting her softly. “Where you really worried?” he looked up at Alamar with what seemed like hope in his eyes.

Nodding, Alamar presented him with a smile. “I was. And I still am. Why are you sleeping here? Don’t you have a bedroom?”

Harry shook his head, while he continued petting Aurora who rolled into a ball as well, lying in the little boy’s lap, purring happily. “This is my bedroom. It’s close to the kitchen, so I can start breakfast easier.”

Alamar’s brain seemed to stop working. “Breakfast?”

“Yes. Uncle Vernon gets really mad if he comes down and there’s no breakfast on the table. He needs to eat quickly before he goes working. And Dudley needs food before school” Harry explained as if it was the easiest explanation ever.

Frowning, Alamar shook his head. “And how do you go to school then?”

Harry shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not in school right now. Maybe next year.”

“Hm.” Alamar decided not to tell him that it was barely legal to keep a child out of school. Was it even legal to do that? Well, whatever it was, he needed to bury his own thoughts, when he smiled at Harry again. “Do you maybe want to come over today, when you’re free?”

“I’m never free.” Harry suddenly grinned. “But Aunt Petunia has her book club meeting at two, so I can come over then. She won’t realize I’m gone then.”

Nodding, Alamar softly brushed a lose hair strain out of Harry’s face. “See you in a few hours then. I’ll make sure to have some cookies ready, if you want.”

“Cookies?” Harry’s eyes widened and he grinned broadly.

“Eric makes the best cookies ever!”

Nodding enthusiastically, Harry hugged Aurora again, who looked up and hooted surprised, before she licked Harry’s cheek again and got up.

“See you later, Harry. Sleep tight now.” Alamar smiled and placed a soft charm on Harry’s mattress, so he could sleep well and also a memory charm not to forget their meeting at two. Before Alamar had even closed the door again, Harry was fast asleep.

Sighing, Alamar turned to Aurora who meowed softly and safely led him back out of the house without tripping on any magical triggers. Once he was outside, standing in the middle of the street, he stopped walking and turned back to the house of Harry’s horrible family.

It wasn’t their fault. If the magic around the home was an indicator, old Dumbledore had his hands in there almost everywhere. Aurora sat down next to him and looked up at him, silently. With only the cold night wind rushing through the sleepy town, Alamar turned around and stopped, when he saw yellow eyes on him from a shadow.

An Animagus! It couldn’t be Dumbledore, right? He had evaded this fool long enough to hopefully fall into a part of his forgotten mind. If this was how they would finally meet, he would be rather mad. Well, Aurora didn’t hiss at the Animagus, so it couldn’t be Dumbledore.

In fact, when the animal walked out of the shadows, it was a cat a little smaller than Aurora. Before Alamar could do anything, it transformed and in front of him stood another witch. She brushed some dirt off her robes and looked at him over her glasses.

“I feel like we need to talk, Mr. Rogers.”

Frowning, Alamar turned to look at Aurora who unhelpfully still stared at him as if he had some tuna hiding in his jacket pockets. When he turned back to the Animagus on front of him, she had the weakest smile on her face.

“I can assure you that your Krimnee knows exactly what she’s doing.”

“Follow me, then” Alamar presented her with a smile and turned around. He once again had a bad feeling that whatever this Animagus was going to tell him, he was not going to like. And well, Eric might not like anything he had seen tonight. He still needed to know.

When he opened the door, Eric was quickly standing in front of him and frowned slightly, when Alamar stepped away from the door the let the Animagus in as well. Aurora happily jumped onto the kitchen table and rolled into a ball, falling asleep almost immediately.

“Good morning” the Animagus said towards Eric. Alamar saw how he eyed her sceptically. Even though she was an Animagus and they did side with the creatures, most wizards tried to hide their animal forms. Especially since the Ministry was hunting them down like actual animals during shooting season. So, it was special to see a wizard actually transforming in front of someone. It meant serious business, Alamar was sure of it.

After a second, Eric smiled and offered tea, which she accepted and within a few moments, they all sat around the table, where Aurora was peacefully asleep.

The Animagus introduced herself as Minerva McGonagall. “I’m the Deputy Head Teacher from Hogwarts.”

“You work for Dumbledore?” Eric asked and looked up from his tea. Alamar could see him almost chasing her out of their house.

Nodding, she sighed. “He doesn’t know me. I’ve been keeping an eye on little Harry Potter. And I was very surprised to see him in this very house, enjoying himself.”

Alamar frowned. “Will you tell your boss?” If she was, the two of them needed to go back on the run as soon as possible. They had evaded the Ministry and its stupid creature laws successfully for quite some time. He wasn’t going to risk it, just because an Animagus told someone.

As a vampire, Alamar would be shipped back to Croatia or wherever they thought vampires were from. And once he was shipped back there, he was in the system. No creature wanted that. There had only been a few reports of creatures who survived and ran away after years inside it. What they said wasn’t good.

The Animagus shook her head. “Outing you would be outing me. I was trying to help Harry Potter myself. But I wasn’t able to get into the house undetected.” She looked at the Krimnee and nodded impressed. “I’ve never seen one in my lifetime.”

As if Aurora realised someone was talking about her, she raised her head and looked at Minerva McGonagall and meowed before stretching and rolling on her back, exposing her belly. This was the ultimate show of trust. Apparently, Aurora trusted their guest completely.

“Why didn’t you just do something? He’s having it really bad in there” Alamar said, ignoring Eric’s worried look on him. He was going to tell him everything when their guest was gone again.

Sighing, Minerva McGonagall shook her head and took a sip of her tea. “Dumbledore would have found out. He would have also found out about me being an Aminagus. He already doubts me; I don’t want to give him more information on me.”

Eric nodded. “If the new Animagus law is passed, the Ministry could imprison any unregistered creature for up to five years in Azkaban.”

Minerva sighed. “Nobody wants to be registered with the _hunters_. They throw us into the system, just as they do with you, but they then use us as pawns in undercover fights.” She shook her head. “Someone needs to fight these creature hating ministers.”

“Not with Reese inside the Wizengamot” Eric rolled his eyes.

Alamar had to hold back a smirk. Eric could talk for hours about this topic. As a fairy, he was one of the creatures hated most by the wizards. Even more than werewolves, centaurs and goblins. The fairies were one of the last creatures to resist the wizard’s take over. In fact, Eric’s home area was still an active war zone.

Minerva McGonagall nodded grimly. “Reese will only rest once he’s killed every last creature on earth.”

“And enslaved all the Animagi” Alamar added, while Minerva nodded.

“Yes.” She sighed and emptied her cup. “Well, I must be going back. I just wanted to tell you to take care of him.” She smiled at Eric. “But I trust with a Haltija by his side, little Harry Potter is in good hands.”

Eric returned her smile and walked her to the front door, while Alamar sat by the table, staring at the sleeping Krimnee. It didn’t take Eric long until he was back in their kitchen, frowning at his husband.

“Alamar? What is going on?” he asked, placing Minerva McGonagall’s cup in the sink and sitting down on his chair again.

Rubbing his forehead, Alamar sighed. “It’s much worse than I thought. I don’t think we can let him stay there.” He frowned, disapprovingly. “There’s controlling magic everywhere. If it weren’t for Aurora, I would have never even gotten close to him.”

Eric looked at Aurora, who purred in her sleep. “So, what do we do now?”

“We might have to get him out there as soon as possible.”

“And without Dumbledore realising that, right?” Eric asked and leaned back in his chair. It was quiet for a few moments, before a malicious smirk appeared on his lips. “Alright, challenge accepted.”


	3. Datsuzoku

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alamar and Eric save Harry from his relatives.

Datsuzoku – noun. A break from habit or daily routine. An escape or freedom from the ordinary; a life unbounded by convention

“Eric, what are you doing?” Alamar leaned at the door frame of their house, looking at Eric who was so slowly cleaning up what he was doing in the garden, even a slug would have been faster. He had called his husband for the fifth time already and finally decided to put the food on a warming charm and headed outside.

Looking up, Eric let the garden hose fall down and looked at it without showing any intent of getting it again. A malicious smirk appeared on his lips, as he turned to Alamar with a sudden sweet expression. “I’ve got no idea what you’re referring to.”

Alamar shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. “You haven't? Are you not hungry then? Because we both know I don’t _really_ need to eat. I think I’ll throw it away then.”

Eric rolled his eyes, knowing very well that Alamar was absolutely not going to waste any food. He grabbed the almost empty watering pot and poured it out over the grass when he walked to the other end of the garden to pour some water in.

“Eric” Alamar had a hard time hiding his smirk, yet he still decided to repeat his question. “Love, what are you doing?”

“Waiting for the perfect moment, when the uncle’s coming home.”

“Why?”

Eric smirked, when a car drove into the driveway in Harry’s home and when his uncle got out of the car, he called over the street. “Evening Mr. Dursley!” His wave was way bigger than usual and with a snap of his fingers he made the garden hose roll back into place. And almost everything he had used so much time cleaning up before was done in almost two seconds. Alamar couldn’t help himself, but laugh at Eric’s clear intention of making Harry’s uncle uncomfortable. It wasn’t nice, not even close, but the tension he had felt, made him laugh loudly.

They had been living here for five weeks already and Eric had shown absolutely no respect for the Muggles over the street. One week, he had – of course accidentally – charmed the postman not to give them any mail and the poor man had kept putting it into their box. Every morning, Eric had marched over the street to personally hand Vernon Dursley his mail. One day, all the water had mysteriously turned into syrup and Eric said it was an experiment that went awry. And that other week he had completely ‘forgotten’ his address, since they lived here for only a few weeks and given the landscapers the wrong address. While the Dursley’s were gone, these poor workers dug a hole so deep you could fit a whole donkey in there. And when Harry’s uncle came to protest, Eric had shrugged his shoulders and with a wave of his hand completely undid the hole in the earth in front of him. He seemed about to explode.

Alamar had not gotten enough of his indeed slightly evil husband. Yes it was evil, but it kept the Dursley’s away from Harry and most of the time gave him a huge list to do while they were gone and Alamar usually helped him with it, after which they went to look for Eric and Aurora.

From the corner of his eyes, he could now see Vernon Dursley with a red face and when Alamar turned to look at the man, Eric unceremoniously placed a kiss on Alamar’s cheek, which seemed to be the last straw to break the camel’s back. However, instead of making a scene, he just walked back into the house, quite clearly swearing under his breath.

“Someone ought to remind you how to act normal around Muggles” Alamar grinned and looked over to Harry’s house where a nosy woman just looked outside and glared at them. He smiled and waved at her, while she quickly tore the curtains close.

Eric grinned at him. “Am I the only one who’s forgotten that memo?”

Smirking, Alamar shook his head and placed an arm around his husband as they entered their home. While they walked to the kitchen, their steps echoed through the empty house. Since they already knew, they were going to move away again very soon, most things had stayed in boxes. They hadn’t even bothered putting pictures up or decorating their new temporary home and only used the things they needed most. Which meant that they had been able to pack everything they owned in less than four hours. Without magic.

Well, the kitchen was still almost fully furnished. In actuality, it had even more things on the table. Alamar pushed the bow and arrows aside and let the one-pot-pasta float onto the table. Eric already sat there, looking at the plan they had made in the last five weeks.

It was difficult this time: Dumbledore’s magical markers were everywhere and there had only been one thing that could stabilize the magic for as long as possible: Vampire blood.

“Eric, stop thinking and eat. We’ll need a lot of energy tonight. Harry really needs us and if one thing isn’t working in our plan, we can forget it.”

Sighing, Eric nodded and placed the map on his bow. “I just really wish all this was over.” He got up and grabbed two plates from the box and a few glasses.

Alamar nodded. “Me too. It’ll be over soon. We just have to wait until they’re asleep, get Harry and leave as soon as possible.”

“Sounds easy” Eric smirked and started eating, while Alamar laughed and poured the last bit of the red wine into a glass, pushing it over to Eric. Protective vampire blood should be as clean as possible sadly.

“If you define ‘easy’ as having to kidnap a child from a magically protected home surrounded by some of the strongest magic I’ve seen in my life connected with basically mind controlled relatives, sure.”

Before Eric could say anything, probably making fun of Dumbledore losing his prized possession, Aurora looked up and meowed. Alamar got up and walked through the home to open the door. Aurora jumped behind him, though not even slightly scared. It looked like an old friend was about to enter their home.

In front of the door stood a familiar cat, looking up at him with a tilted head. Alamar chuckled and stepped back, only for Aurora to jump at the Animagi. Minerva McGonagall jumped to the side and raced over the threshold only to turn into a human again as soon as the door was closed.

“Minerva, how lovely of you to come by!” Alamar greeted her as Aurora meowed and sat down by her feet, looking up at her expectantly.

The Hogwarts professor chuckled and took a treat for Aurora out of her pocket and gave it to her. Alamar could swear that he saw their Krimnee with huge eyes as she purred happily and went off to the kitchen. There, she lay down under the table, chewing contently.

Alamar and Minerva followed her and Eric smiled, quickly placing the weapons and tools on the kitchen counter so she could sit down next to them. “I was afraid we wouldn’t be able to say goodbye.”

“Good evening, gentlemen” she greeted them. “And I wouldn’t let that happen.”

Chuckling, Alamar offered her a plate as well. “Sadly, the only thing we could offer you is a part of Aurora’s meat, the little pasta we’ve got left or Eric’s homemade herbal tea.”

Aurora meowed as if to protest that Minerva would eat her meat, which they all knew she wouldn’t. Krimnee fodder wasn’t really tasty or even good for humans or animals. It had to be specifically produced with some magical protection spells. Luckily, Alamar was the one who knew almost everything about Krimnees and their needs.

Minerva laughed and shook her head. She did accept the leftovers from their dinner and while Eric was already checking his weapons again, she turned to Alamar. “So you’ll be leaving tonight, then?”

“Yes.” Eric was the one to answer. He grabbed an arrow and sat down, cleaning the metal tip. “We’ve spent enough time here and it’s time Harry gets out of that home and away from Dumbledore’s influences.”

Nodding, Minerva looked up from the food. “I agree. I’m just sad to see you go.”

Eric smirked. “There’s a section in The Prophet especially built for creature information. I’ll have you put on the list so you’ll receive the creature news as well. You can choose what ‘additional information’ you want to receive, so it’s something you’re actually interested. We’ll inform you where we are through it.”

“How come I’ve never heard of that?” Minerva frowned and shook her head as if she was surprised she had never heard of something like a secret newspaper inside the huge newspaper organization.

Well, actually, almost no wizard or witch had heard of it. That was the whole point of a creature part of the newspaper and if the lead editor didn’t have his secret army of creatures and wasn’t married to a Veela, this thing would have probably never happened.

Alamar chuckled. “Well, even though Animagi are on the creature’s side, you do have your own rules and regulations. The creature information is basically just for creatures.” He grabbed a decoder and pushed it over the table, smiling. “This one will work for our messages only. Eric’s name is Drya Dalis. So keep an eye out for any of his articles.”

“We’ll be going to Russia first thing tonight.” Eric told her and placed the arrow on the table, charming another one to float over to him, so he could continue to clean them.

Minerva nodded and looked at the decoder interested, before she turned to Eric. “Yes, Russia is rather well adapted to young wizards and witches.”

“And the creature laws are pretty lenient” Eric grinned.

“Mostly because our vampires are basically everywhere.” Alamar smirked and grabbed a syringe. “I hope you don’t mind. It needs to be done after a meal.”

Minerva shook her head and chuckled. While she turned to Eric, Alamar took out a little bit of his blood. Vampire blood especially placed there to protect someone or something was so strong that you didn’t need much. Well, given with free will. Most wizards and witches thought that no matter what happened to that blood, it had protective attributes, but they were just stupid.

Eric placed a box in front of him for the syringe and Alamar put it in there, while his husband cleaned up the miniature wound.

Sighing, Minerva shook her head. “Well, I am happy that you take Harry out of here, but I did like coming here and talking to people I trust. So I am sad, that you’re leaving. Maybe I can come visit you three in Russia sometime?”

“I would really appreciate it, Minerva” Alamar smiled at her and nodded. In these five weeks, he had actually started to like her very much as well. She did feel like a little sister to him and he didn’t really like that she was so close to old Dumbledore. Then again, he had no doubt that she had the old fool in her hands as well.

Aurora walked out from under the table and jumped up onto her lap. Minerva chuckled and petted her as well. “And I will be missing you too, Aurora. Keep an eye out for little Harry for me, will you?”

As if to agree – which Alamar was happily going to argue their Krimnee did until he was about to die - Aurora meowed with a rather serious expression and she jumped down and walked to the door, looking outside through the glass window at the side of the door.

Minerva smiled at them and got up. “I would like to thank you for some really nice evenings and I wish you well. Hopefully, we’ll see each other again?”

“Of course, Minerva!” Eric got up as well and hugged her, before she followed Alamar to the front door.

“Take care, Minerva.”

“You too, Alamar.” With that she transformed back into a cat and when Alamar opened the door slightly, she raced outside and was gone in a matter of seconds.

Turning back to his husband, he entered the kitchen again. Eric had already cleaned up everything and shrunken all their possessions down to place them into their small travel bag. The only things lying on the floor were a few smaller knives, Eric’s magical bow and arrows and Alamar’s vampire protection.

Dumbledore was not even going to realize what hit him, only when it was by far too late. Something in Alamar really wanted him to be able to see his expression when Harry was turning eleven and he would realise that his trophy boy was gone. How much fun would that be?! Well, maybe Minerva would be in the room and she’d let him see her memory.

“Are you ready?” Eric asked as he inspected his bow again.

Alamar sighed. “Absolutely. Aurora?”

She meowed from the door and her wings flattered as if she made herself ready to fight. Eric chuckled and walked to the living room window. “Then we only have to wait.”

*

It only took about three hours. Three hours of Eric being creepy and standing in the dark room by the window watching the neighbours. Yes, nobody could compete with a patient fairy and a protective vampire. Since, while Eric pretended to be a stalker, Alamar sat on the floor surrounded by their tools and cast thousands upon thousands of spells on their weapons, increased the protectiveness of the vampire blood and inspected everything again. If it worked properly now, Dumbledore would sleep deeply and happily and nothing would tell him that something went wrong in the Dursley household.

Shortly before midnight, Eric appeared next to Alamar and nodded. “They’re all in bed. The last light went out half an hour ago. If we’re quiet, I’m sure we can already start going in there.”

Alamar nodded. “Or start protecting everything.”

Once the street lamps went out, three shadows snuck over the street and stopped a few feet away from the magically protected property. Alamar took out the syringe and let a drop of blood fall onto the pavement. He closed his eyes, remembering the Latin chanting which was going to start the supreme protective spell.

„Defendat nos, et domui huic,  
Protegas me, et huic puero,  
Tueri corporis animaeque amet,  
Et custodierit omnia quæ pretium non sciatur.”

While he said that, Alamar slowly walked along the property, slowly dripping around ten drops of blood on the floor. As soon as they hit the floor, they evaporated. Once the last drop of blood was gone, Aurora carefully walked onto the grass, keeping an eye out for any magical triggers. While she helped Eric finding everything and he stabilized the magic around the house, Alamar continued walking along the property line and dropped his blood in even distances along said line. He only needed about ten minutes until the heavy air around the house suddenly lightened and he felt the good old trustworthy vampire essence working.

“All good?” Eric whispered when Alamar joined him at the back door.

Nodding, he motioned his husband to open the door. Sadly, most back doors didn’t have any welcome mats, so he really couldn’t just go in. Eric grinned quickly and quietly pushed the door open.

Aurora scurried inside and after about ten seconds, Alamar saw her owl head appear at the door again. She meowed quietly and her tail seemed to point at the direction of a magical trigger. Eric quickly placed a charm around it and they cautiously entered the magically watched home. Every movement was carefully chosen and while Eric placed stabilizing charms around the triggers and Aurora searched for them, Alamar gently removed the hateful charms on some pictures and where else Dumbledore had placed them.

At least like that, the Dursley’s weren’t going to look for Harry and potentially warn Dumbledore that his trophy boy had run away. If he was not important to them, they would probably just forget he even existed. Which was their goal for now.

Once Aurora and her human had found each and every evil magical trigger and he had removed all the harmful spells, Alamar told his husband to keep a watch at the living room window. He didn't want him to find out where Harry's room was and probably freak out over the terrible parenting Vernon and Petunia Dursley had done. It really wasn't their fault, with so much magic in the air - but still.

Opening the door, Alamar found Harry once again rolled into a ball and Aurora raced through his legs and jumped on the bed, meowing softly and effectively waking up Harry. When he saw Aurora looking at him, he sat up quickly, grabbed his glasses and hugged the Krimnee.

“Hi Alamar!” Harry said quietly and smiled. “Why are you guys here now? I can come over tomorrow, if you want?”

Alamar chuckled. “Would you like to come with us? Leave this place, Harry?”

Widening his eyes, Harry looked down at a purring Aurora and back at the vampire. “I can come to you now? Isn’t it late?”

“Harry” Alamar smiled and kneeled down. “Do you want to live with us? Eric and I would…”

“Yes!” Harry had such huge hopeful eyes, that Alamar couldn’t help himself, but chuckle.

He motioned Harry to get out of the cupboard and when they appeared in the living room, Eric grinned broadly at the boy. “Hi Harry! Coming with us, I assume?”

Nodding over enthusiastically, Harry ran through the living room and fell into Eric’s hug. Alamar’s husband looked at him, smiling, and then grabbed the child and pulled him into his arms. The four of them left the house and walked over to their old house.

“We’ll have to go to Gringotts first” Alamar said and smiled at Harry. “After that we’ll leave England behind us. Sounds good?”

“Where are we going?” Harry asked and held his arms tightly around Eric’s neck.

Eric smiled down at the boy. “We’re going to Russia, Slugger. No one’s going to look there for us and we can live happily ever after.”

Harry sniggered, while he stared yawning and Alamar chuckled, ruffling through the child’s hair. “Don’t worry, Harry. It’ll be over in at most two hours, then you can sleep as long as you want.”


	4. Sternschnuppe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eric and Alamar head to Gringott's to see if there's anything wrong with Harry.

Sternschnuppe – noun. A falling star or meteor, mostly seen at night.

Travelling at night was always interesting. Watching the people in their perfectly normal lives: some asleep, some young teenagers out drinking something somewhere hidden. People driving home, dead tired and others just having the time of their lives. Eric had always enjoyed people watching. That was until one day he had realized how repetitive it had gotten.

A normal life wasn’t interesting. Wake up at six, eat breakfast at half past six, drive to work at seven, work from nine to five and go back home to eat dinner and watch TV. All of that was just boring.

No, the true joy of watching people was when you were somewhere you didn’t know anybody and you could just sit there and do nothing – well, except for people watching. Not that they had any time to do that.

Currently, they were on their way to get out of England. However, with the amount of magic Alamar and Aurora had found in Harry’s home, Eric wasn’t going to take the boy out of the country without having him looked at by some friends. Luckily, he knew exactly where to find them.

As the night turned to the witching hour, Eric and Alamar entered Diagon Alley. They walked in the shadows and since the moon was almost gone by now, they could hide away rather well. Not that there were any witches or wizards around, but two creatures with The Saviour, about to kidnap him, surely was going to attract a lot of attention.

Even though they were in the shadows, Eric exhaled as they finally entered the safety of the Gringott’s creature wards. What the wizards didn’t know was that the goblins were on their side ever since the wizards and witched started taking away their gold. The creature wards made every creature either look like a goblin or a wizard or witch, depending on what was closer – people could make of that what they wanted.

“What are we doing here?” Harry asked as he curiously looked at the huge und extremely unstable looking building.

Eric smiled at the young boy. “We’ll make sure that you’re ready to travel. We wouldn’t want people to come and find you, right?”

Harry shook his head and looked at Alamar. “Are people looking for me?”

The vampire chuckled and shook his head. “Absolutely not. Nothing bad will ever happen to you again, okay?”

While Alamar ruffled through Harry’s hair, Eric smiled at his little family. Well, even though Eric didn’t like his fairy family, it didn’t mean that his own was problematic. In fact, he had asked his partner for years upon years to start a small one. Alamar had always said that they didn’t have time for a child. And also… to think that his husband had always tried to counter with the fact that he wouldn’t know how to behave around a child was completely out of his head.

Before he could think even more about it, they entered Gringott’s through the side doors especially built for creatures. No wizard or witch has ever seen it and most of the time, if they had been turned into a creature, they wouldn’t say a thing. Not with this Ministry.

“That cannot be true!” someone called out as soon as Eric put a foot through the door and a goblin saw him. Smirking, Eric rolled his eyes. “Eric Rogers! I think I may have just died!”

A rather huge goblin walked up to him and tried to put his arms around his waist, though he didn’t quite manage. “Dwarfbart, how are you?”

“Good, good!” The goblin positively beamed at him and motioned them to walk with him. While he almost made two steps when Eric made one, he was still faster than they were. Eric had always liked this place, especially since the goblins actually liked colours very much and Dwarfbart especially was wearing a bright yellow jacket with a dark red shirt and almost green glowing pants.

While the wizard and witches’ side looked probably bleak and maybe a little scary, the goblins had always tried to make the creatures feel welcomed. There was a bar and snacking area, even a hospital corner, just in case someone came in seriously injured. The lights were bright and warm and there was even some soft soothing music playing. The goblins greeted everyone by name and if you just needed a bed for a night, they were sure to help you out. It was a safe zone for every creature and the goblins made sure to help as much as they possibly could.

Tonight seemed to be a slow night as only two other creatures were in sight: a Veela, doing business with a goblin, and a man who seemed to have been turned into a werewolf only a few days ago and had no idea what to do next. Eric could feel the pain surrounding the man. He seemed to be so lost, as if his entire life was crashing down around him. Actually, there were four goblins surrounding him and trying to help out.

Dwarfbart led them through a corridor to his own office. Ever since Eric had first stepped into Gringott’s, Dwarfbart had been his personal accountant. And that was not going to change. Even though he was now aging a little faster than the goblin, they were still going to life longer than any wizard or witch, so their friendship had a few hundred years more to blossom even brighter.

When the three of them sat down and Dwarfbart sat on his chair as well, he looked at the child intrigued. “Is that Harry Potter?”

“It is” Alamar confirmed and sighed. “Dumbledore made...”

“Don’t even start” Dwarfbart rolled his eyes. “It’s always Dumbledore, right now. His newest thing is trying to talk people out of their power. He’s trying to take over quite a few seats the Potter family has had in their century of ruling, as a matter of fact.”

Eric frowned. “What do you mean? In the Wizengamot?”

Dwarfbart sighed. “Not just there. What do you know about the creature rulings?”

Creature ruling were the first laws the wizards established after enslaving the Veelas and driving most of the free ones out of the country. It was supposed to ensure a peaceful coexistence of creatures and wizards, but ended up mostly on the Wizarding side, starting the stupid Ministry they had to deal with right now.

“The Potter family founder Linfred of Stinchcombe was vehemently against most rules and he was one of the most heard voices in the Creature Ruling Court. While he was alive, he actually tried to buy out a few families to get more seats. Right now, the Potters own ten seats in there” Dwarfbart smirked and nodded impressed.

Eric widened his eyes. “That’s a tenth.”

Nodding, the goblin raised his eyebrows quickly. “The Potters were one of the better witches and wizards: They really tried to help the creatures. Well then, what can I do for you fine young gentlemen?”

Alamar snorted and shook his head. “Stop calling us ‘young’ would be a good start?”

“Oh well, Alamar, you don’t look a day over two hundred and fifty” Dwarfbart smirked, while Eric chuckled and was on the receiving end of a push. Meanwhile, Harry sat between them and grinned from Eric to Alamar. He seemed to like their banter and Eric was glad he wasn’t scared of the goblin, though he did look tired, which wasn’t surprising.

“We rescued young Harry Potter from a house that was full of Dumbledore’s magic and we wanted to make sure that if we went out of the country, he wouldn’t be able to find us” Eric explained when he turned back to his old friend.

Dwarfbart raised an eyebrow and frowned. “Old magic?”

Eric couldn’t quite answer that and so he turned to Alamar who sighed and nodded. “I’ve never seen so much magic in a home. It was everywhere. It wouldn’t surprise me if Dumbledore placed something on Harry as well, just to keep track of what he was doing.”

Nodding, Dwarfbart looked at Harry and took his wand in his hand. “Do you mind, young Harry Potter, if I would analyse your magical core for a few seconds?”

Harry widened his eyes and looked at Eric with a shimmer of fear hiding inside. Eric smiled down at him and nodded.

“Don’t worry, Sweetcakes, we’ll be with you at all times, I promise. And Aurora would never let anything bad happen to you.” He pointed at the Krimnee who was asleep on Harry’s lap and at the mention of her name; she looked up and purred before placing her owl head back on his legs.

That seemed to have helped Harry, as he nodded shyly and Dwarfbart carefully placed the spell on Harry. The small boy had closed his eyes and petted Aurora. He looked so little right now and even though he was six years old, he seemed to be too tiny.

After a solid minute, where Dwarfbart looked increasingly worried down to the parchment that was apparently writing a book, it finally stopped at the goblin took a deep breath. Wordlessly, he shoved the paper over to Eric. He leaned over it and while he read on, his heart felt as if it was being crushed by the reality of what was going on with the little boy.

> **Name:** Harry James Potter  
>  **Parents:** Lily Alyssa Potter (née Raven) and James Potter  
>  **Godparents:** Sirius Orion Black and Tom Marvolo Riddle  
>  **Adoptive family:** Petunia Dursley (née Evans) and Vernon Dursley  
>  **Creature family:** Ljósálfar elves (maternal side); living in Alfheim  
>  **Lordship:** Potter, Peverell, Stinchcombe, Fleamont, Gryffindor
> 
> **Wizengamot Seats:** Peverell (2x), Stinchcombe, Potter, Fleamont, Gaunt (2x), Riddle, Gryffindor (2x)  
>  **Creature Ruling Seats:** Stinchcombe (10 seats), Gaunt (2 seats), Riddle  
>  **Creature Conference Seats:** Raven  
>  **Merlin’s Court:** Gryffindor (2x)
> 
> **Creature inheritance:** unknown (will show up at 17)  
>  **Creature Soul Mate:** unknown (will show up at 15)  
>  **Creature power:** animal language, light speed reactions and agility, night vision  
>  **Creature ability:** unknown (will show up at 17)  
>  **Creature protector:** Nachtkrapp
> 
> **Magical inheritance:** Horcrux (Tom Marvollo Riddle)  
>  **Magical trigger:** 5 controlling magical triggers; Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore  
>  **Specific triggers:** inhibition of magical control, hindrance in eye sight, containment of animal language (exception: snakes), food surveillance, disdain mechanism against Slytherins  
>  **Magical marriage:** Ginevra Molly Weasley or Pansy Parkinson (signed by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore)  
>  **Magical spell:** Various (see additional list)  
>  **Magical core stability:** 1/10 (interrupted by Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore), without interruption: 7/10  
>  **Magical protector:** Kneazel

That was incredible. Well, mostly concerning, especially, since Dumbledore’s name appeared far too often even though he shouldn’t have anything to do in there. What was incredible was the other information, Eric had learnt today.

“Harry’s mother was a Ljósálfar?” Alamar asked and turned to Eric. “They’re the good ones, right?”

Nodding, Eric smirked. “Light Elves, yes. Interesting that Lily was adopted by a Muggle family. I can’t imagine Dumbledore had nothing to do with that with how much he’s doing here.”

Dwarfbart nodded. “Sadly, I cannot confirm this, since Lily Potter has never appeared in here to make an inheritance test. And we can’t really do one with dead people.”

“I also cannot believe Harry’s a Raven! They’ve got so much power!” Alamar laughed out of sheer surprise and shook his head, he then turned to the little boy who sat between them. “Do you know that you could basically be our king with that name?”

“Really?” Harry asked and widened his eyes.

Eric chuckled and shook his head. “Not really, but definitely royalty.”

“Cool!”

Alamar laughed and Eric snorted over such an honest answer, while Dwarfbart chuckled as well. Eric felt some magic rush by him and he saw how Harry softly sank into the chair and fell asleep right there. Looking back at the goblin, he knew that some serious topics were about to start. He wouldn’t make their client fall asleep if there wasn’t something easy to discuss. For goblins, children were fully grown people as well. Dwarfbart took back the parchment and addressed the more serious points.

“So, the marriage contracts can be annulled, since not even the girl’s families have been informed they existed. That’s the easiest part.” He looked at the other parchment, where the spells Harry was under were still being written down, even though the goblin had long ago stopped his spell. “The five magical triggers can also be removed fairly easy. What worries me is... well” he motioned to the parchment and shook his head. “Mr. Potter’s magical core is already quite strong, even though Dumbledore tried to restrict it. Otherwise, he could have never stayed alive with so much magic in his veins.”

“Can you take away Dumbledore’s magical core restrictions on Harry?” Alamar asked and looked at Harry, who was peacefully asleep, while Aurora slept equally as peacefully on his legs. It was a cute picture, though Eric needed to concentrate on something else.

Dwarfbart nodded. “I can’t take away all of it right now. But I can minimize his influence and with that it will go away naturally with Harry using his magic regularly.”

That was all well and good, but there was something that Eric wanted to address quite quickly. He narrowed his eyes and sighed. “Is it possible for you to remove the Horcrux? I really don’t want Harry walking around with a piece of Tom.”

Dwarfbart nodded. “Of course. At least now we know where Tom went. It’s still confusing how he found out about the Horcruxes and why he tried to go after the Potters, but it should be easier to track him down now.”

“Let’s hope so” Alamar sighed.

The parchment finally stopped writing and Dwarfbart looked it over. It was quiet for two minutes, before he looked at Eric and Alamar. “The good news: All of that can be removed by the end of the night.” He grabbed another parchment and filled it out, before he handed them to Alamar. “Please bring young Harry Potter to the Infirmary; they’ll take care of him there. Meanwhile” he turned back to Eric, “let’s finish the paperwork so you can have access to your money from wherever you are?”

“Agreed” Eric nodded and smiled at Alamar who carefully picked up Harry along with Aurora who only sleepily opener her eyes for a few seconds. And with that, they walked out of the office and into the hospital.

*

It took Eric about an hour until he was finally done with all the paperwork. When he left Dwarfbart’s office, the goblin leaving with him, though heading towards the inside of the bank, he yawned and walked back into the welcoming hall.

In there, he spotted his husband fairly quickly. Alamar sat on a couch, facing the infirmary and rubbed the back of the werewolf who was still there. Eric stopped and smiled softly. Of course Alamar was there to help out.

“I don’t know how I’m supposed to tell my wife!” the poor man said and pressed his face on his hands. “Her family will hate me. They’ll throw me out! And my children!”

Alamar said something quietly and continued rubbing his back. By now the man even started sobbing. How bad must his situation be? Or rather, how much fear did he have? Maybe his wife was understanding and even helped him?

“You can’t stay here forever, Kyle” Alamar said, apparently already on a first name basis with the man. “Sometimes it’s best to just face the fear you have inside.”

“But this...” Kyle shook his head. “I’m a monster!”

Eric frowned as Alamar smiled at the man. Wizards had no idea of creatures, did they? Werewolves weren’t monsters, they were protectors. Yes, they weren’t as strong as Haltijas and it might seem cursed if they had to transform into werewolves every full moon... but they were the best thing the wizards had been able to create.

“You are not a monster, Kyle!” Alamar said and emphasised it, while he leaned forward. “You have to remember that, okay? Monsters don’t know what they’re doing. You do know that.”

Kyle shook his head. “A werewolf isn’t worth anything in this day and age! They will rip me into pieces as soon as it’s revealed. And they might even think that my children have been infected and...”

Alamar placed a calming hand on Kyle’s arm. “It’s not a virus. I’ve been telling you that for the fifth time already. Kyle, there are a lot of helpful organisations out there, especially designed to help werewolves live in a normal life. You wouldn’t even have to tell your wife that you’ve been turned.”

Eric walked closer and placed a hand on his husband’s shoulder. Alamar jerked slightly, though he leaned back and looked up at him.

“All good?” he asked and smiled weakly.

“Good to go” Eric answered. He then looked at the man who faced the two of them now. “Hi, I’m Eric. I’m sorry for eavesdropping, but there’s a helpful academy for werewolves in Iceland. They’ll train you to keep composure even when your wolf instincts try to come through and once a month they’ll hold ‘meetings’. It’s all tailored to the job someone has. What do you do?”

Kyle rubbed his eyes and inhaled deeply. “I’m a private investigator for the Auror corps.”

Nodding, Eric smiled. “Nice. So they’ll probably send you ‘recruiting’ letters or monthly gathering for professionals and whatever else you would want and need.”

“Isn’t that too obvious?”

Alamar chuckled softly and shook his head. “They’re very good. They’ve been doing that for over two centuries.”

Kyle looked from Eric to Alamar and shook his head. “Why would you help me? I’m a stranger to you guys and... I’m a werewolf!”

“We’re all a family here. And how else would you find out about the werewolf academy?” Eric asked and smiled.

That moment, Dwarfbart walked back into the area and headed to the infirmary. Eric placed a kiss on Alamar’s head. “I’ve got this, love. Don’t worry about... him.” Kyle worked for the Aurors, he really didn’t want him to find out about Harry. His husband seemed to have read his thoughts as he simply nodded and turned back to Kyle. Meanwhile, Eric nodded at Kyle and walked behind the goblin into the medical corner.

“Everything is good to go” Dwarfbart said, when he found Eric next to him.

The Druid gave Eric a parchment. There were a good fifteen potions on there. “These will help with the side effects of loosing so much magic in his body. It will take around two years until he is finally able to control his magical abilities and everything that comes with it.”

Sighing, Eric nodded. He did not want to think about what would have happened if they would have found him later on in his life. How much of what could have been reversed now, would be stuck by then? Magic was a difficult topic, especially for wizards who had absolutely no idea what they were doing to it.

“Could you reverse all the spells on him?” Eric asked and turned to look at the sleeping boy in a hospital bed. Next to him was Aurora, cleaning her fur and wings. Both looked almost peaceful.

“Everything is resolved. And if he takes the potions, there won’t be any repercussions” the Druid stated and smiled. “I was even able to heal the scar on his forehead. It’s still there, but not as visible and weirdly shaped. The scar was apparently a place to hide a curse and since Dwarfbart removed the curse, everything is fine.”

Eric nodded, extremely relieved. Harry was going to be fine!

Dwarfbart presented him a vial with an almost invisible liquid inside, though it was still moving. It was almost a ghost looking substance. While Dwarfbart handed him the vial, Eric felt his husband moving closer and he stopped next to him in only a few seconds.

“This is Tom’s Horcrux” Dwarfbart sighed and shook his head. “Our healers have found a terrible secret: This is not even half of Tom, this is a seventh.”

Looking up, Eric was shell-shocked. “What?”

“How is that possible?” Alamar asked and widened his eyes. “I thought wizards were unable to split their souls in more than four parts for their own mental good?!”

Dwarfbart nodded. “Nobody knows. However, our goblins may have found another part of Tom Riddle in the Lestrange family vault.”

Eric was now completely confused. Another part of Tom Riddle’s soul was inside the Lestrange family vault? All of that looked far too much like a set-up. “What? That doesn’t make sense! The Lestranges have always been creature allies. Why would they go against one of their best?”

“Your guess is as good as mine” Dwarfbart exhaled. “They’re currently extracting the soul part. I know it’s too much to ask, but would you be so kind as to take them with you? I doubt there’s a place in the UK where we can hide them from Dumbledore. We’ll send a few people out to look for more soul parts, but I’ve got my reservation we’ll find anything in a short amount of time. It might take a decade at least.”

“Can they hurt anyone like this?” Alamar asked suspiciously and looked at the vial in Eric’s hand.

Dwarfbart shook his head. “No. And the glass keeps them inside; they won’t be able to do any harm like that.”

Alamar turned to Eric. “Then we should take it.”

“I agree” Eric nodded and looked at the vial as well. “Maybe we’ll find a cure for this and we can bring Tom back from the cursed life he’s currently living.”

“Thank you.” Dwarfbart sighed relieved.

Alamar smiled and then turned to Dwarfbart as if there was something else he had wanted to ask, but completely forgot until now. “Since you’re still here, the parchment said something about creature power and creature ability. Why does Harry have creature powers, even though it’s not clear if he’s a creature? And what’s the difference between creature power and creature ability?”

Dwarfbart chuckled, as if that was an old question, which Eric believed it was. He had asked himself the same questions, though there were much more pressing matters to discuss before. The goblin started to explain: “The powers have been passed down from generation to generation, adapting to what was needed to survive. The ability will be specifically for whatever creature Harry Potter might turn into. If he isn’t a creature, he will receive no abilities, but since his mother was an elf, he still has whatever the Ljósálfar considered important for their survival.”

Nodding, Alamar then turned to Eric. “So how come he has night vision? Aren’t the Ljósálfar supposed to be around during day light only?”

“Yes” Eric chuckled. “However a few thousand years ago, before the wizards even realised they could harvest magic, the Ljósálfar were one colony with the Dökkálfar, the dark elves. When the wizards found magic, they went underground, claiming the night and the Ljósálfar believed that wizards could be responsible and stayed. Somewhere in Harry’s family tree, there must still be a Dökkálfar who must have passed down the night vision.”

Apparently, that was enough to satisfy Alamar’s thirst for knowledge, since he nodded and turned back to the sleeping boy. When another goblin came back with the second vial of Tom’s soul, Eric accepted it as well and carefully placed them in his satchel.

“I hope we’ll see each other again sometime soon” Dwarfbart said as Alamar carefully lifted Harry into his arms and Aurora jumped from the bed to sit down next to Eric.

Chuckling, Eric shrugged his shoulders. “Time is rather irrelevant when you live for a few hundred years, Dwarfbart, we both know that. So, I do believe we’ll see each other soon. Whatever that might mean.”

And well, once the first sun beams hit England, the Golden Boy had disappeared. Nobody was ever going to find him in the UK ever again – at least for a few years. Eric and Alamar had made sure of that.


	5. Cynefin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry wakes up in Russia after being freed by Eric and Alamar and explores his new life.

Cynefin – noun. A place, where a person or an animal feels it ought to live and belong, it is where nature around you feels right and welcoming.

The next time Harry opened his eyes, he found himself in a small room. It looked beautiful and expensive. Most of the wood was dark and polished. Harry wondered who had cleaned it so amazingly. Aunt Petunia would have probably fallen in love with them. Well, looking around a little more, Harry quickly found someone else in his room: In the corner in an old looking rocking chair sat Alamar, reading a thick book and on his lap slept Aurora dreaming about hunting.

As soon as Harry had found Alamar, he looked up and smiled at Harry.

“Good morning, Harry. How did you sleep?” he asked and closed the book to place it on a table next to him.

Harry frowned. “Where are we? I’ve never seen a place like this.”

Alamar chuckled. “We’re in Russia. In Sviyazhsk to be exact. Eric needs to confirm our arrival first and then we can move on and finally hide from stupid people.”

“Aren’t they everywhere?” Harry asked and a weak grin grew on his face, while Alamar chuckled.

“Where did you hear that?”

“Uncle Vernon said that” Harry explained and pulled the blanket back. Never in his life had he laid in such a perfect bed. And the pyjamas were so comfortable, it felt like soft flowing water on his skin. He walked over to the window and looked outside. “It’s snowing! Can we go outside and walk around?”

Alamar nodded. “Of course! But you do need to eat some breakfast first.”

Harry turned to look at Alamar with puppy eyes. “But it’s snowing! What if it stops once we’ve eaten breakfast?!”

Chuckling, Alamar shrugged his shoulders. “It will not be the last time it snowed, Harry. And if it actually does stop snowing, I’ll make sure to find another place for you where we go outside when it snows. But today, you’re going to eat breakfast first.”

“Okay.” Harry grinned as he turned around to the window to look outside for the last time with huge eyes. He then faced Alamar again, who woke up Aurora and placed her in a small soft bed, when she stretched and rolled back into a circle with her eyes closed.

Harry grinned and walked behind Alamar through the huge house. While Alamar walked down the first flight of stairs, Harry followed slowly, looking at the pictures on the wall. There were huge party scenes and sometimes small bowls of fruit. People walking busily through a rainy street and two old ladies arguing.

Harry stopped and turned back to the last picture. No, he hadn’t imagined it, there actually were two old ladies arguing with each other. One had a cane and continuously tried to hit the other grandmother with it, while the other grey haired woman used her black umbrella as a shield and attack weapon. It was almost like watching a movie.

“Are you okay, Harry?” Alamar asked and walked back around the corner to look at him.

Nodding, Harry pointed at the picture. “Is it a movie? I thought these were pictures?”

Alamar chuckled and nodded. “Yes. They are pictures. But magical pictures are moving. And I believe these two are Madam Zellweger and Madam Novik. They’ve been fighting ever since they first met each other.”

“Why?”

“Nobody knows” Alamar chuckled. “There are rumours though.” While the walked down another flight of stairs, Harry listened intently on what Alamar had to say about these two women. “One was that they were twins, separated after birth. One twin went to Switzerland, the other to Belarus. When they met, they apparently both lost their true identity and fought until the end of their lives about who was who.”

Harry shook his head. “That’s terrible.”

Alamar smirked. “They’re all terrible. The second rumour was that they both fell in love with the same man and tried to fight over who could keep him. Even once the man had died.”

“I don’t like these stories” Harry admitted and they walked down the final flight of stairs, where Harry once again, concentrated on all the portraits along the walls. All of these people were looking old and almost tired.

When they finally reached to ground floor, Alamar walked through a living room that was almost four times the size of the Dursley’s living room and they finally stood in the kitchen. The kitchen had everything: A huge island with a cooking area, two fridges, though one was probably a freezer and even a small bar area.

Harry climbed up on one of the stairs and looked at what Alamar was creating. It felt weird not being the one to make food, but whenever he had been with Eric and Alamar, they never let him touch anything in the kitchen that wasn’t food. It was a welcomed change from what he had to do in the Dursley’s household.

Within a few seconds, Harry had a hot chocolate standing in front of him and he grinned broadly, before thanking Alamar.

“Can I tell you something?” Harry asked after he took the first sip of his perfect hot chocolate. When Alamar nodded, Harry continued still grinning. “You make the best hot chocolate.”

“Even better than Eric’s?” Alamar asked and looked at him questioningly.

Harry nodded. “Yes! Your hot chocolate is the best!”

“Oh no! How could you do that to me?!” a voice sounded and Harry turned to see Eric standing in the door with a considerable amount of snow on his shoulders and head. “You were my favourite human being, Spartan! And now my ego has officially been wounded!”

Eric held his heart and fell to his knees, as if he was in fact wounded and couldn’t go on. Harry looked at Alamar who had quite a lot of trouble hiding his smirk. He wordlessly poured some more hot chocolate into a cup and walked from behind the kitchen island to place the cup in his hands.

“Taste some of that victory, love.”

Eric placed it on the floor and laughed so hard, he fell on his side. Harry almost choked on his hot chocolate and placed it on the counter while Alamar chuckled as he walked back and winked at Harry.

When Eric finally stopped laughing, he was on his back, holding his stomach and had his eyes closed. “You’re terrible, Alamar.” He groaned as he got back up on his feet and grabbed the hot chocolate. “However, I must agree with Harry. Your hot chocolate is very good.”

“The best” Alamar corrected him and grinned when Eric threw him a glare over which Harry giggled.

Eric shook his head and emptied the cup. He then turned to Harry and grinned. “Want to go outside and enjoy the snow?”

“Yes!” Harry almost jumped up, when Alamar shook his head.

“No, first breakfast” he insisted and looked at Eric as if he couldn’t believe what his husband was saying. Harry grinned and watched as these two seemed to have a stare-off going on. It wasn’t surprising that Alamar won, since Eric sighed and turned to Harry, shaking his head.

Not that it mattered to Harry. Being around Eric and Alamar was always a good time. “So, do I now live with you?” Harry asked and tilted his head.

Eric frowned slightly and nodded. “If you want, yes. We don’t want to just take you some place where you don’t want to be. But if you’re okay with being with us, then we’d like to have you around and...”

“What Eric wants to say” Alamar interrupted and fondly shook his head over how much Eric was saying, “you can stay with us. However, should you decide that we’re not a good match, there’s a rather good magical organisation for orphans in Russia, so...”

“No, I...” Harry was now interrupting Alamar and he smiled. “I really want to be with you guys. I like it here and I feel weirdly safe.”

Eric smiled broadly and nodded. He then opened the fridge and turned to Harry. “How about pancakes for breakfast? Something warm for our precious new addition to this family and then we can go outside and play in the snow? Maybe Alamar would even join us?”

Alamar rolled his eyes. “I hate snow.”

“You hate everything” Eric grinned, while Harry agreed to some pancakes.

“Not everything. I do love you and I like Harry as well” Alamar held up his hands and shook his head.

While Eric mixed the ingredients for pancakes, he smirked at his husband. “So then, come outside and play with us in the snow, because you love both of us.”

Harry grinned over the ridiculous puppy eyes Eric made while Alamar sighed and crossed his arms. “You’re insufferable. Fine.”

Eric smirked and winked at Harry. “I hope you’re taking notes on how to change Alamar’s mind.”

The outraged expression on Alamar’s face made Harry giggle and Eric laughed as well, while he poured the batter into the hot pan.

“I do not change my mind so quickly!” Alamar protested and shook his head.

“Sure, love. If it makes you feel better, I’ll agree.” Eric snorted and evaded a flying vase towards him. Harry followed it with his eyes and turned back to Alamar who rolled his eyes. However, when he turned to Harry, he had a huge smirk on his face and shook his head as if to tell him that all of this was normal behaviour.

Walking over to the pile of vase fragments, Alamar grabbed a quill and a piece of parchment as well as a huge container. Harry tilted his head, looked over to Eric to see that he was still making breakfast, and jumped down from his chair.

Before he could say anything, he felt Alamar’s magic surround him and he was lifted up from the ground and placed on the sofa next to him. “Watch out for the broken pieces, Harry. They can be very small.”

“What are you doing?” Harry asked and settled down on the sofa, looking down on Alamar.

Smiling softly, he turned to him. “Well, we are quite a messy couple. So, a lot of vases or glasses fly around and get broken into pieces. Nevertheless, we still love each other and we think that it is important to tell the other that, even though we were mad at them, our love is still as strong as before.”

Harry frowned and looked at the set-up. “How do you do that?”

“Well” Alamar grinned and pointed at the vase fragments. “Big pieces are the reason why I love him and the small ones are just moments in the last few months that showed and proved to me that we match together and that I am in love with him.”

Counting the six vase fragments, Harry turned to the man sitting on the floor. “So, you’re writing six reasons why you love him and then however many small moments there are on the smaller things? Which fragments are you choosing for big ones?” Harry frowned.

Alamar laughed and shrugged his shoulders. “As many as I want. This is not some school assignment, but basically a love letter in a different way. I have to break something to tell him how much he means to me.”

This time, Eric decided to speak up as well. “You know, we don’t need to do this, but it’s just a nice way of getting rid of the pieces.”

“Don’t trust what he says” Alamar whispered and winked at Harry. “He’s got a personal trunk full of my letters and he keeps re-reading them almost every other day.” His laughter was so warm and clearly in love.

“I can hear you, you know!” Eric shook his head, clearly unable to believe that his husband would give away a secret like that. Well, there was also a fond expression on his face and he turned to the batter with a smile on his lips.

Harry laughed and watched as Eric silently made breakfast and Alamar cleaned up the floor and wrote things on the parchment. It was so peaceful and happy in this place. And it smelled like pancakes. Everything was better with pancakes.

After breakfast, Eric made sure that all three of them had some fun and he dragged Alamar with them outside to explore the area and the snow. Luckily, it was still snowing and within a few seconds, Harry probably looked like a snowman himself. Even Alamar seemed to have fun and he especially laughed over Eric’s antics around snow.

Harry quickly learnt that even though sometimes Eric seemed like the actual adult, when there was snow around, he turned into quite the child. He started at least five snowball fights, made three snowmen and once ‘accidentally’ built a magical snowman around Harry from which Alamar had to free him. Not that Harry had anything against that. In fact, his laughter had probably destroyed the snowman alone.

He had never realized that one could have fun in the snow. Yes, he had always wanted to do something fun and the awareness that for the first time in his life, someone didn’t expect him to shovel the drive-way or whatever made it even better. He was just supposed to have fun right now and enjoy the weather and cold snow.

For lunch, they went into a small restaurant, where Harry enjoyed the best chips and chicken cutlet he had ever tasted. It was so good, that he opted on never going away from here ever again.

“So Harry” Eric started and smiled. “You know how we took you away from your relatives? There was a reason why we left the country.”

Harry caught him sharing a look with Alamar who smiled and nodded softly. Stuffing more chips into his mouth, Harry nodded and waited to find out where this was going to go.

Eric quickly continued: “There’s a man in power who seems to want to take over the Wizarding Government. And we think he wants you to be his secret weapon.”

“What for?” Harry asked and stopped eating. He was a weapon? That was stupid.

“Well, there were some weird things going on, before your parents died, you know?” Alamar said and smiled weakly. “And the rumour is that all of this was staged by him. So, we wanted to save you from being used your whole life.”

Harry nodded. He understood a little bit. Maybe when he was older he would understand everything. Or maybe never?

Eric luckily saved him from his thoughts. “In order to keep you save, we thought that maybe you should blend in and go to school here, in Russia. The problem is that with a name like yours, everyone will know who you are. So, what do you think about changing your name?”

Shrugging his shoulders, Harry resumed eating his chips. He didn’t really mind that, as long as he could stay with Eric and Alamar and Aurora. “I don’t mind.”

“How about Harrison Corbin Rogers?” Alamar offered and smiled softly. “Harrison so we can still call you ‘Harry’. Corbin is old French and means ‘little raven’ in honour of your mother’s family name and Rogers so you’re our son?”

Harry stopped and looked up at Alamar in shock. “I love it!” he said after a few quiet seconds and beamed at his honorary fathers.

Eric chuckled and ruffled through his hair. He was about to say something, when another voice interrupted their little discussion.

“Eric?! I cannot believe it!” A blond woman walked up to the table. She was wearing all black and a name tag from the restaurant on which stood ‘Kira’. Her dark blue eyes were full of life and very interested. “How did we both run away and find each other in Russia of all places?!”

Eric sighed and shook his head. “Hi Kira. I don’t know. But I’m just stopping to travel through here.”

Kira chuckled and shrugged her shoulders. “Everyone’s doing that.” She grinned and turned to Alamar. “Hi, dear. How are you doing, lovely?” Her voice was so sweet and high that Eric threw her a right out evil glare.

He got up, grabbed Kira’s arm and pulled her with him to basically the other end of the almost empty restaurant and sat down there with her as well.

Harry frowned and turned to Alamar who was chuckling and shook his head. “Who is she? And why did she call you lovely?”

“That is Eric’s sister. Kira constantly flirts with me whenever we meet just to drive Eric crazy. It usually works.” He smirked and looked through the restaurant. Harry followed his gaze and found the two siblings who were clearly arguing quietly with each other. “Nonetheless” Alamar got his attention back, “these two are actually quite close. And their arguing is just a sign of sibling’s love. I bet if something were to happen to Eric, she would come and help him in a heartbeat.”

Harry watched as Eric rolled his eyes and shook his head, but got up and walked over back towards them, Kira in tow.

“Well then” Eric sighed and rolled his eyes. “I think we’re leaving this town as soon as possible.”

“Why?” Kira asked and made puppy eyes. “If I had to stay around someone of my family, I would choose you!”

Eric snorted and shook his head, while Harry watched their interaction rather interested. When they first met, Eric had said that he didn’t like his fairy family and now to finally meet someone from there was fascinating.

Alamar smirked. “So, how was your year back home? Last year you had to fight, did you not?”

Kira sighed, but her eyes sparkled, as she started talk. “I did. Mother was ruthless. She’s really not in the mood to fight for a few more hundred years. This had been our land first. What did these idiots think they could just take it over?!” She pulled her shirt away from her neck and showed a deep red scar running from her neck down to her shoulder, where it disappeared under the clothes. “Got this nasty scar from a stupidly used magical trick by the wizards. It’ll be gone in a few decades, but I cannot believe I didn’t see it coming!”

Eric chuckled. “To be honest, I’ve never seen someone fighting more reckless than you do. Last time we fought together I saw you sneak up on a wizard until you basically stood behind him to fight. No one would have done that!”

“No one’s big on fun, Eric. You should know that best. You and me against the rest of them, you remember?”

“Nope” Eric tried to hide a lopsided grin and received a shove from his sister.

She then smiled at Harry. “So who are you? Did they kidnap you?”

“No” Alamar answered and raised his eyebrows, while Harry giggled.

“They saved me!” he said instead. “And my name is Harry... Harrison Corbin Rogers!”

Kira bowed mockingly. “Then I believe I need to tell you my full name as well, huh? I’m Kyreena Harmony Radella Rogers. Not married, so no other last name. I think my three first names are quite enough.”

Alamar chuckled and shook his head, while Eric sighed. “How’s father?”

Kira smirked. “Better than ever. He has gotten back onto the field and in Maiselle’s name, you should see him fight! He actually got back almost a fourth of what we lost in the last few centuries. It was awesome!”

“You clearly like to be around them, then” Eric commented and smirked.

“If I don’t have to talk to them” Kira laughed. “You know me, Freddy. Fighting is one of my hobbies. I cannot get enough of it.”

“Which is exactly why you’re here in Russia, right?” Alamar asked and smirked.

Harry frowned and turned to Eric. “Why did your sister call you ‘Freddy’?

Eric rolled his eyes. “My parents decided to call me Frederick. I honestly hate this name. So I have a few nicknames, but the one I go with is Eric.” He looked at Kira as if she should have known not to call him Freddy, which made her shrug her shoulders and grin.

“Anyway, you guys don’t have to worry. I won’t tell anyone you’ve been here and decided to settle down in Russia for a while” Kira smirked and turned to Eric. “And I won’t tell mother I’ve seen you the next time I go fight for our country. _However_ , fairies have complained that you haven’t been around a lot as of lately. So, make sure to come by in the next decade.” She smiled and motioned towards Harry. “At least you now have a reason not to stay too long. The rules for fairies with actual families are still the same it has been.”

“At least something good to look forward to?” Eric rolled his eyes while Kira chuckled and shrugged her shoulders. She waved goodbye and went to some people who had just entered the restaurant.

Harry grinned and turned to Eric. “I like her.”

Eric narrowed his eyes and raised his eyebrow, while Harry chuckled and was pulled away towards Alamar. “I’ll keep you safe from him!”

Shaking his head, Eric grabbed some chips from Harry’s plate and sighed. Even though his actions might have looked as if he couldn’t believe that Harry would say something like that, there still was a sparkle in his eyes. “Well, I choose to ignore that last comment.” He stifled a laugh and turned to Alamar for a more serious discussion. “When we move closer to the core of Russia, we can get a wand for Harry and maybe even get you in a good school for magical children, how does that sound?” he asked Harry.

Nodding with wide eyes, Harry grinned broadly. “I like that!”

“It’s a plan, then” Alamar smirked. “Should we head back outside for some more snow, now?”

“Yes!” two voices called out and Alamar chuckled.


	6. Vorfreude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harry, Alamar and Eric move once again deeper into Russia.

Vorfreude – noun. A joyful, intense anticipation that comes from imagining future pleasures

> **Norway opens up border for all creatures**
> 
> _by Tyler KOZŁOWSKI_
> 
> Good news to all our creature allies: Norway has finally decided to open up its borders for all creatures, after Denmark announced their plans of shipping all UK creatures back to England last week. It has seen a massive rush of creature refugees in the last few days and numbers are still rising. 
> 
> Since Great Britain is one of the most powerful nations, there are a few countries that have closed their borders for creatures and keep a close watch for any movement. Here are the countries that aren’t safe at the moment, adding to the list of last month: Germany, Poland, France, Spain, Netherland and Belgium.
> 
> If you intent on travelling to any of the aforementioned countries or you are staying there, please stay hidden and don’t move. Creature rescue boats are travelling up and down the shore of France and Spain to bring you to Portugal, however, do not intent to do anything hasty. Creature allies warned of reckless behavior, as Thomas Opal said in his creature press conference: “The best thing we can do is what we’ve always done. Hide and wait for the storm to pass. There is only so much build up a storm can have.”
> 
> There are still a few countries that might change their mind: Switzerland is still on the verge of choosing either side. It might be best to leave while it’s still open and Italy has seen a more relaxed approach to the creature laws. For now, Italy might be the next country to open the borders. We’ll keep informing you if anything changes.
> 
> May Ceto be with you and your families and keep them safe.

Alamar sighed and placed the paper down by his morning coffee. It had been getting worse and worse for over a century. France was at least somewhat nice to the Veelas, but them telling everyone else that they were on their own wasn’t really helping. And Belgium stopping all help to the creatures was a death threat to the Phoenix breeders there. Europe wasn’t careful at all. All this tension could one day just break everything into pieces.

“What are you reading?” a voice finally brought him out of his mind and he felt a familiar presence in the kitchen. He didn’t have to look up to know that Eric was standing behind him. It still startled him when he put his arms around his neck and kissed his temple. “Darling? What’s on your mind?”

Chuckling, Alamar leaned back and closed his eyes. “How bad our situation’s gotten. The creature’s situation I mean.”

Eric hummed and nodded. “Not a surprise, really. Everyone’s just too scared to do anything about that, I believe. At least Iceland hasn’t stopped their support.”

“You already read the article, then?” Alamar asked and opened his eyes to see Eric smiling softly.

“Love, I have been awake for three hours already, trying to tire down Harry. He just doesn’t get tired in the snow!”

Alamar laughed over how desperate Eric sounded, right when Harry ran into the kitchen. His hair was even more disheveled, eyes sparkling and his nose red from the cold outside. He hadn’t looked more alive and healthy ever since they had first met him.

“Good morning, Harry” Alamar greeted him and smirked. “Enjoying the snow?”

“Yes!” Harry called out and beamed at him. “But Eric promised me hot chocolate, so I came inside.” He grinned as if he knew that Eric might have been too tired to keep playing with him. “Also I won the last snow ball fight.”

Alamar gasped playfully and looked at Eric as if this was the worst thing that ever happened. His husband only rolled his eyes and went to make some hot chocolate, while Harry sat down at the table.

They had been staying in Sviyazhsk for almost two months and it was soon time to move on. Harry had finally gotten his creature travel visa and they were able to move further into Russia. Eric had been travelling there on his own looking for a place to stay for the four of them and where Harry could go to school. Apparently, he had found something and they were going to move in two days.

“Alamar, what is your job?” Harry suddenly ripped him out of his thoughts.

Frowning, Alamar looked up and shook his head. “What?”

Harry grinned. “What do you do? Just sit around all day?”

“He does” Eric called over and hid behind the counter as if he was expecting something coming flying his way. When Alamar simply smirked and waited, Eric finally looked up carefully and Alamar made the water flow sprinkle right into his face over which his husband laughed. Over all of this, Harry had smirked and shook his head.

“I’m an extraction expert” Alamar started and smirked. He could see Harry about to ask what on earth that was and decided to start talking before he could. “That means, I free enslaved creatures. Much like I did with you, you know. I go into houses, find the creatures and get them out of their enslavement.”

Harry widened his eyes. “That’s why you could just walk into the house?” he asked.

Alamar chuckled and nodded. It was probably too complicated to tell Harry that his extraction was extremely complicated and had it not been for Aurora, he would have probably never succeeded. “Exactly.”

Eric placed three cups of hot chocolate on the table and sat down next to him, yawning. “Alamar freed our creature leader, by the way.”

“No, I didn’t.” Rolling his eyes, Alamar grabbed his cup. It was always that story; and Eric never got it right. Well, yes. Technically, Roy Adler was now their creature leader and he had helped set him free, but when he had freed him he had been nothing but a boy. Just like Harry!

Chuckling, Eric kissed his cheek, probably knowing exactly what he was thinking about, while Harry seemed to marvel about that information.

“Can I do that too? I want to help people as well!” he widened his eyes and looked at Alamar. “Can I come with you next time you go and save someone?”

“No.” Alamar and Eric said at the same time. Harry titled his head slightly, but didn’t say anything. While Eric seemed to try and come up with a good response, Alamar smiled at the small boy. “It’s too dangerous, Harry. Maybe in a few years, I’d feel comfortable, taking you with me. But for now, I’d rather know you’re safe at home. Okay?”

Harry nodded. “Sure. Thanks.”

“Don’t worry about it” Alamar said and winked at him, not entirely happy with promising Harry to take him with him one day. That day might suddenly be here and then what? He couldn’t just tell him off until all eternity. Although... vampires aged much slower, so maybe he could tell Harry that he was counting in vampire years? Well, no, that would be playing dirty and cheating.

When it was quiet afterwards, Eric frowned and turned to Harry. “How come you ask Alamar what he does but not me?”

Alamar chuckled. “Because you stay home all...” Eric held his mouth closed and shot him an evil glance, while he really couldn’t hold back his laughter.

Harry snorted and shook his head. “No. But you always do something and Kira said sometimes you go back home and fight with other fairies for your land. So you’re a warrior.”

“Kira said that?” Eric narrowed his eyes for a second and sighed then. “I’m not a fan of you quoting her.”

“Well, _Kira said_ ” Harry stated and smirked over Eric’s eye roll, “that in reality you two are quite close. She said you have ten other siblings!”

Alamar laughed over Eric’s defeated expressions. Yes, family talk wasn’t really his favourite topic. Nevertheless, he seemed to have himself under control when he answered Harry. “I do, yes. Kira is the youngest of all of us. And I’m a decade older. The next closer sibling is I believe one and a half century older than us, so we always felt like we needed to stick together if we wanted to be someone.”

They talked for a while about their families, before Harry finally went upstairs to pack his things and Eric went to help. Alamar stayed in the kitchen reading up on new creature laws in Europe, and the panic that was slowly settling in. This wasn’t a good time to be living close. Luckily, they were moving away as soon as they could.

*

Two days later, they had travelled to a very small town in Russia called Bor, lying on a river. It wasn’t so cold that your hands would freeze off if they met the air for two seconds, yet still rather cold. Even the house they had entered was so cold you could see people breathing. Luckily, Alamar was quite skilled in magic and within a few seconds, the house was warm and cosy.

Well, while Eric had gone off with Harry quite possibly placing a bed down for the small boy to go to sleep immediately, Alamar decided to snoop around their new temporary stay for however long they decided to stay.

Sadly their new kitchen wasn’t as big as the other one anymore, though still with enough space to place down a table. However, the couch had to go into another room. On the bottom floor were next to the kitchen, a dining room and a somewhat sizable living room, two offices and an animal play room.

When Alamar snuck up the stairs, he passed a lot of old looking portraits of witches and wizards. Stopping in front of one that vaguely reminded him of a former head teacher in Hogwarts, he sighed softly. For their own safety, he secretly placed a reversed notice-me-not spell over all the portraits in the house for the time being. Like that, they could walk around the house and the portraits wouldn’t even realise anyone was in here.

As he nodded softly and walked to the landing on the first floor, he stopped, hearing Eric and Harry talk quietly. Yes, eavesdropping wasn’t appropriate, but he was interested in what was going on with the two people he wanted to protect from all harm.

“Why does Aurora sleep in my room? I thought she belonged with you?” Harry asked and Alamar could make out a soft purring noise. He was sure that Harry was petting Aurora and that their Krimnee was probably already half asleep.

Eric chuckled softly and a ruffling of sheets made Alamar think that he likely sat down on Harry’s bed. “She’s a protector, you know. And I think all she wants to do right now is to make sure that you’re doing okay. Are you okay, Cowboy?”

Harry giggled softly and Alamar hears sheets shuffle again. “Can you read me a fairytale, Eric?”

“Of course, Rebel. Which one would you like?”

Alamar slowly walked closer to the only room where light was coming from and peered inside. Harry was lying in his bed, blanked up to his nose and his eyes were twinkling with the reflection of the candle on his bedside table, while Eric sat with crossed legs on his bed, leaning at the wall facing the door.

Harry tore down the blanket and said: “Cinderella”, before hiding half of his face again.

Eric looked over to him with a smirk on his lips. “Because it has a fairy godmother in it? Do you want to make me angry?” He leaned over Harry, who giggled under the blanket. He didn’t even have time to respond as Eric started to tickle him and rolling him into a burrito with his blanket so Harry had no way to escape him. Not that Harry seemed to care as he laughed loudly.

Alamar chuckled and shook his head, when Harry finally got his breath back, still encased in his blanket, and Eric leaned back at the wall. He grabbed a book and opened it, before clearing his throat. “Once upon a time, a girl named Cinderella lived with her stepmother and two stepsisters. Poor Cinderella had to work hard all day long so the others could rest. It was she who had to wake up each morning when it was still dark and cold to start the fire. It was she who cooked the meals. It was she who kept the fire going. The poor girl could not stay clean, from all the ashes and cinders by the fire. ‘What a mess!’ her two stepsisters laughed. And that is why they called her ‘Cinderella.’”

Smiling softly, Alamar retreated and looked at the first floor, while he heard Eric reading Cinderella in the background. This level had four bedrooms and another office and then there even was another level, though it quickly showed that it was just a huge attic.

When Alamar walked down the stairs, he found Eric sneaking out of Harry’s room and quietly closing the door again. He caught his husband’s eyes and smiled while holding his index finger to his mouth. “He just fell asleep” Eric whispered and they both snuck down into the barely furnished living room.

Yawning, Alamar grabbed a parchment and wrote down a few things they needed to do in the next few days. Harry should start going to school here and he needed a wand. Eric also needed to write a message in the creature news so Minerva would know where they were and hopefully visit them soon. And he needed to tell his extraction team where he had moved to, just so they knew where to reach him.

“Stop working, Alamar” Eric sighed and took away the parchment to place his own head in Alamar’s lap. “It’s too late for that.”

“Well love, someone had to be the adult in this family” Alamar chuckled when Eric only half offended raised his eyebrows.

His husband grinned and shrugged his shoulders. “Thank you for taking on this responsibility, I’m not ready to be an adult yet.”

Laughing gently, Alamar tenderly ran his fingers through Eric’s soft hair. His husband had closed his eyes and was breathing heavily, as if he was about to fall asleep himself. Yes, even though the two of them didn’t have that much trouble moving their stuff, it was still a lot of work and they were both knackered at the end of the day.

Out of nowhere, Alamar suddenly remembered something weird. He turned to his husband. “Do you remember Harry’s parchment?” Alamar asked.

“Yes, why do you mean?” Eric opened his eyes, trying his hardest to focus on anything, though Alamar saw how they closed automatically, making it really hard for him to stay awake.

He still decided to ask the question. Should his tired husband actually fall asleep, he could always write it down on his list and ask Eric tomorrow. “It said, ‘Creature Protector Nachtkrapp’. What on earth is a Nachtkrapp?”

Eric smiled softly and tried to stifle a yawn, even though he didn’t manage. “They are scary creatures, let me tell you that.” He smiled with his eyes closed and hummed. “They’re basically huge ravens with pitch black eyes and holes in their wings. They used to live in Germany, but travelled up to Sweden. People said they would kill and eat humans.”

Alamar widened his eyes. “What? Why is that a protector?!”

Eric laughed and opened his eyes, somehow managing to focus on him. “Don’t worry, love. That’s just a rumour. They’re hauntingly beautiful, almost like Veelas and they are extremely powerful. I’m not surprised they’re Harry’s protector. I’m sure when he finds a Nachtkrapp, they’re going to be inseparable.”

“They’re not going to eat him, right?”

“Love, it’s a fairy tale so the children would go to bed as soon as it was dark out.” Eric smiled tiredly and closed his eyes again. “You can hear them calling through the night and parents used that as a threat for the naughty children to finally go to bed. They’re not eating humans. I think they’re dietary needs are fish and mice.”

Alamar shook his head. “Hm. I’m not really happy with that.”

“You need to see them first, darling. Once you see them, you’ll know what I’m talking about.” Eric said quietly and then turned to his side.

Before Alamar could say anything else, he realised that Eric fell asleep right there and then. He chuckled softly, placed a kiss on his husband’s temple and slowly got up. With what little magic he had left, he made Eric float up the stairs behind him and they went to bed in their new home. He really needed to sleep for as long as he could. Hopefully, Harry was going to sleep in for as long as possible.

*

The next morning, Eric and Harry had decided to look around their new home for a bit and trying to find a place where one could get food. Alamar happily started to decorate their new home. One positive thing of having to travel around the world and being a wizard was that he could try new things with the decor. Though right now, he didn’t feel the need to make huge differences. What he did decide on was to hide all the previous portraits behind their own ones.

He hadn’t done anything else, when an owl pocked at the window and he opened it to find one of the creature owls. Their patterns weren’t like normal owls. This one had a beautiful dark brown back and reddish wings with an interesting black spot on one of his eyes. “Morning Nigel. What is it you’ve got for us today?”

Nigel placed a booklet on the kitchen table and grabbed one of Aurora’s meat balls before he headed out again. Aurora just tapped into the kitchen when Nigel left and she looked at her food as if she knew exactly what had happened to it.

Alamar chuckled and sighed. “Sorry Aurora, Nigel was here and he clearly took something from you.” Aurora meowed to protest and then walked over to her bowl and started eating nonetheless.

Meanwhile, Alamar opened the booklet and sighed at the sight of it: _Further Educations_. “So it’s this time of a decade again” Alamar sighed and sat down by the table to look through all the courses they had to offer. The academy for all creatures always had good courses; however, learning new things was getting harder and harder. At least Eric and he had already completed the language courses.

He wasn’t even half done with the booklet, when Harry stormed in with sparkling eyes, bringing so much cold and even wetter snow into their home, while he laughed. Eric wasn’t far behind though he was packed with stuff they bought.

“You’re awake! Can we go play in the snow?!” Harry called out and jumped up and down.

Chuckling, Alamar shook his head. “Breakfast, Harry. We’re eating first, I thought you would remember that simple rule in our home!”

Harry rolled his eyes and walked over to pet Aurora. She meowed and purred quickly, before she returned to eating her food. Alamar placed the booklet on the table and walked over to help Eric putting their food away.

“Actually” Eric started and grinned at Harry. “I thought we’d go and buy you a wand after breakfast. I’ve already enrolled you in the closest magical school.” He turned to Alamar and smiled. “They work with both kinds of magic and they even teach creature culture. Do you want to know the best thing?”

Alamar frowned and nodded. “Yes, please, darling. I would like to know what you consider ‘the best thing’.”

Eric hit him over the head with a chocolate bar that broke into two pieces, while he snorted. Harry laughed, probably over Eric’s surprised expression that the chocolate bar actually broke into pieces. “It’s a day school. So Harry will still be with us every day.”

He hadn’t thought that this information was such a relief, but when Eric told him this information, Alamar felt himself relax. Eric chuckled as if he knew exactly what was going on in Alamar’s head, which he wasn’t going to rule out. Eric knew him better than anybody else – sometimes even better than he knew himself.

“What do you mean with ‘different kinds of magic’, Eric? Are there more than one?” Harry sat walked to the window and sat down on the windowsill, looking intrigued.

Alamar chuckled and started with a simple breakfast, while Eric nodded and walked over to Harry to sit on the floor. “There’s ‘magic’ and then there’s the second layer of it. We call it ‘Draíocht’. It’s the living, breathing personification of magic; sometimes the wizards call it Lady Magic. Wizards use magic and it works fine, but if you want to have acceptance of magic and want to use it without much effort and know that whatever you do, it will turn out fine, you have to ask Draíocht to be your guide.”

“Can you still like... make whatever you want?” Harry asked with wide eyes.

Eric nodded. “Yes. Draíocht has a trial phase, where she wants to see what you do with the power she’s granting you, but after that... you can do whatever you choose. However, Draíocht can also take back her power. Like I’ve said, she’s a living, breathing, magical being.”

Harry was listening with wide eyes and he nodded. “I want to be able to do that! I can’t wait!” He clapped his hands and Eric chuckled. Alamar smirked as well and he placed their English breakfast onto the table.

While Harry sat down by the table, Eric caught the booklet with his eyes. “Oh no. I thought we just did a course with the academy!”

“Twelve years ago, yes.” Alamar smirked and nodded when Eric looked at him rather surprised.

“Unbelievable. Well Harry” Eric turned to him and grinned. “Looks like we all are going to be in school together. Though not in the same building.”

Alamar laughed when Harry looked at him confused. “And our courses will be shorter than Harry’s. First and foremost, Eric: We should get Harry a wand, okay?” Both men nodded and started eating breakfast as if their lives depended on it. Alamar smirked and sent his husband a loving glance, before he grabbed a toast as well.


	7. Fantods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Albus realized that Harry Potter is gone and he's trying to figure out what to do next.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've passed my diver's licence and as a celebration I've decided to give you another chapter as soon as I've been able to write :) I'm happy about both things xD

Fantods – noun. State of extreme anxiety, distress, ‘feeling so attacked right now’

A few thousand miles or kilometres away from where a certain person was staying currently, an old white haired supposedly wise wizard was looking through some parchments as if he was looking for something precious he had lost. That wasn’t something new. People who knew him would tell anyone who would listen that he was planning and plotting ever since they knew him.

Well, this was new. He almost looked desperate. In fact, he was desperate. He had lost something and just now found out by accident. And at present, he wasn’t able to figure out what had happened.

A knock at the door made him stop and he looked up. “Enter!” Sitting down by the desk he quickly made the paperwork disappear, when the door opened. Luckily, it wasn’t some Ministry fool, but Minerva McGonagall walking in.

“Albus, you’ve been in your office for the past two months. People have started to worry and the professors think you’ve died. What is going on? Ever since Christmas you’ve been behaving weirdly” Minerva sighed and shook her head.

Albus Dumbledore narrowed his eyes. He didn’t really have proof that anybody in his school was betraying him, so there really wasn’t a reason not to trust her. He had trusted her with everything to be honest.

So he cleared his throat and motioned to the chair on the other side of his desk. Once she sat there and looked at him expectantly, he smiled with an intentional sparkle in his eyes. This always made people relax around him.

“Well, you see, I’ve just been informed that Mrs Figg died. She was supposed to keep an eye on little Harry Potter.” He watched her closely, as she frowned and shook her head. There really seemed to be nothing in her manner that showed she had something to do with the disappearance of his little pawn.

Minerva rubbed her nose and shrugged her shoulders. “So, what does this have to do with anything? Who’s keeping an eye on Harry Potter now?”

Shaking his head, Albus was sure now that she had nothing to do with it. Well, if she had... she was hiding it extremely well. “Nobody. I went there this afternoon. He’s gone.”

“What?” Minerva widened her eyes and leaned forward. “Albus, this is very bad news! What if the Death Eaters got him? He’s just a small child! We need to find him. We should alert the press and...”

Albus calmly raised his hands so his deputy head teacher would settle down a little. He really didn’t need the Ministry all over him, just because he had lost the future saviour. However, he needed to do something, especially now that Minerva knew that Harry Potter was no longer around.

The deputy headmistress shook her head. “Albus, I’ve been looking at them last summer. Nothing was out of order... I don’t understand...”

“You were looking at them?” Albus frowned and raised his eyebrows. How could she have looked at them last summer? What had she seen?

Minerva seemed to be genuinely too agitated, as she apparently didn’t hear him. “We need to tell the people! Together we could go and look for him. A child all alone! He could be dead right now... And maybe with The Prophet we could...”

“I doubt the press could help right now” he interrupted her, before she would freak out even more. He really didn’t need that right now. “I believe what we need to do is keep this under wraps and investigate secretively. Should the Death Eaters find out that we lost the weapon against them, they might attack us right now.” When Minerva frowned, Albus immediately realised that he had said something wrong. Before he could figure out what it was, she already spoke up.

“Weapon? He’s a child, Albus!”

She wasn’t ready for his big plan then. Albus sighed. “It’s not what they see, you know Minerva. They won’t see him as a child, but as a weapon. I’m just talking with what they would think of that.”

Minerva nodded, though she looked a little tense. He couldn’t trust her, then. “So then, what do we do about his?”

Albus shrugged his shoulders. “I’ve got some friends, they’ll look into it. I will tell some Aurors I trust as well. I’m sure they’ll figure it out.” For a second, Albus pondered over removing this memory from Minerva’s mind. However, she was a rather strong witch and would have clearly figured out that something was missing. “Don’t worry, Minerva. I’m sure he’ll resurface again and I’ll take him under my wing as soon as he does.”

“Let’s hope so.” Minerva agreed, though she didn’t sound sincere. Albus nodded and cursed himself over the fact that he thought he could trust her.

She had been sneaking away from Hogwarts as well, he knew it very well. Though he had never been able to figure out where she was going so late at night. And the fact that she hadn’t done it in a few months was even weirder. Did she maybe know where Harry Potter was?

Maybe she had even taken him away once old Mrs Figg died. However, that couldn’t be true, since she hadn’t been gone in so long and if Harry Potter had been in his castle, he would have known it. He had knowledge over everything that happened in here.

Finally, after a solid minute of silence, Minerva seemed to figure out that Albus wanted her gone and she excused herself with the stupid reason of having some essays to correct. He knew that nobody really worked in her classes; they all looked as if they were having fun.

Shaking his head, Albus walked to the window and stared outside, where a few students were throwing around the snow and practised a few spells. Scoffing at their mocked innocence, he turned back to his desk and made the paperwork appear again.

He was missing something. Something seemed off. He couldn’t find the people who had moved into the house Mrs Figg had had. Frowning, he walked back to the table and leaned over it to look for one specific parchment.

Within a few seconds he had located it. Triumphantly, he pulled it out of a stack of loose parchments, which fell and everything flew around the desk and the floor. It wasn’t important to him, as he had finally gotten the paper he had been looking for.

The yellow parchment copy was a document he had gotten through some secret help and with huge letters, there was a _sold_ written on it and the new owners added with the acronym: COAL.

Narrowing his eyes, Albus growled at it and for a split second, he thought about throwing the innocent parchment into the fire. That could not have happened! Not only, had he not been notified that his spy had died his house, which he had paid for... it had been sold to the traitors of this world. Balling up the piece of paper, he threw it against a portrait of some other former head teacher. The idiot complained, but Albus wasn’t listening, too deep in his own thoughts.

After that old good for nothing idiot died, the house went onto the market and was bought by COAL, the Creature Office for Alternate Lodgement. Albus knew them all too well. And he hated them with every fibre of his body. That could only mean that some creature must have gotten Harry Potter.

Sitting down by his desk, he groaned, when suddenly, he looked up with a smirk on his face. Creatures kidnapped Harry Potter? That could work in his favour... If he could tell a few chosen people, he could potentially reach unprecedented power against the brutes.

First and foremost, he needed to find his precious war hero. Once again, clearing his desk and his floor, Albus silently called for his minion. Within a minute, a knock on the door made him smile and he opened it to find Severus Snape standing there.

He looked even worse than before and Albus silently stepped back to let the potion’s master into his office. He was glad to know that his spells were still working. Manipulating old owls like Minerva was hard work, but young idiots, like Severus, they were fun to play with. And Severus had a very distinct magic, which Albus loved to have around himself.

“Severus, I am so glad you came to look for me. Is there something I can help you with?” Albus asked and sat down by his desk again, while his servant frowned and shook his head, sitting down as well.

“I just suddenly had the idea I could help you with something, Albus.”

Stifling a laugh, Albus nodded and pretended to be fascinated by their ‘bond’. It was only a few rather complicated spells on Severus who hadn’t even realised that they were in place. And wherever Severus was, he would know when Albus needed him to come see him. Magic kept fascinating him.

“Well, I am happy you’re here. You know, I think I need you to take a few weeks off. At least until summer break” Albus chuckled when he found Severus’ surprised look.

“Sir, I haven’t even done anything. And yes, I might have been a little hard on Mr. Weasley, but he brought a real baby dragon to class! I haven’t even given him that much detention and...”

Albus held up his hand, already over the long monologue Severus was giving away like free candy. Yes, this sixth year Weasley boy was a little obsessed with these animals, but he didn’t want to know anything. Children were just trouble makers without real ideas.

He needed Severus to do something else. “It’s not a punishment, Severus. I have chosen you, because I cannot leave my position here and I need someone out there whom I can trust. I can trust you, can I not?”

“Yes, sir.” Severus nodded, while Albus smiled sweetly. Yes, asking people if he could trust them was the best kind of manipulation. Nobody wanted to be untrustworthy! They all fell right into his trap; after that, they would usually do what he wanted them to do. Albus was sure that Severus was one of them as well.

He turned to his minion and placed a smile on his face. “You see, Severus, I’m trusting you with some very important information.” He grabbed his wand under the table and started another incantation on the potions master. In all honesty, he had lost count of how many spells he had placed on him. Nevertheless, there was no limit of spells on people. “I have found Harry Potter right after his parents had died and I had placed him in a safe house. Now it seems as if someone has taking him away from my protection. We really need to find him, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Absolutely, sir!” Severus nodded and Albus could see his own magical incantation forming another layer around the other man.

Smiling sweetly, Albus kept the incantation going while he continued talking to the pale looking young man. “Well, I think we need to get the people who abducted him and are probably torturing him right now. So, I have a special assignment for you: From now until the summer’s over, I need you to go and track down Harry Potter. Don’t bother coming back before.” He stopped the spell and made the stack of paper appear and placed the housing report on top.

Severus eyes all of it suspiciously. “Sir, what am I supposed to do with Harry Potter, once I’ve found him?”

“Bring him here?” Albus offered and smiled again. He needed to have full control over the little war hero. Only then could he fulfil his goal of taking over the Wizarding World and finally chase these stupid creatures out of Great Britain and eventually destroy them all. Especially the north with all the fairies fighting was a huge thorn in his side. “I believe some creature has kidnapped him.” Albus pointed at the parchment nodded, while Severus weakly copied his actions.

Severus coughed, grabbed the stack of papers and walked out, while Albus rolled his eyes. At least now, someone was looking into it. That man wasn’t his favourite puppet, but he could just send him away without problems. He had nobody to stay with and the students hated him, he surely wasn’t going to be missed.

*

Meanwhile, Minerva had hurried through the castle and locked the door of her office, cancelling all spells around the room just to make sure that Albus had no way of spying on her. That wasn’t good. They had hoped for him not finding out about Harry being gone for another four years at least. It hadn’t even been half a year and Albus had already figured out that he was gone?

Minerva grabbed a parchment and started an encoded letter to Eric and Alamar. They needed to know that they were probably being hunted right now. She knew Albus had wanted to tell her more but she must have somehow destroyed his trust in her. Still, he didn’t know that she was more involved in Harry’s disappearance than anybody would think.

The old addition of the newspaper where Eric had written their address was hidden in Minerva’s desk. Grabbing the paper, Minerva transfigured her necklace into the original form of the decoder and quickly wrote the address. And with a whistle, her dark brown owl appeared at her window and she gave him a treat as an apology for what she was going to ask of him. Flying to Russia was probably going to take a few days.

“Bring this to Mr. Rogers” she said quietly, hoping that the open window wasn’t giving Albus another way to listen to what was going on in her office. Toffee hooted and pelted through the open window as if he knew exactly how important this letter was going to be.

Sighing, Minerva looked over the parchments and found another three detention slips for her Gryffindors. She placed them to another pile and glanced back at it. A dragon in potion’s class? This boy was slowly going crazy. She needed to talk to him about these animals, especially with the new laws about to come out. Dragons were quickly becoming part of illegal magical animals. Maybe he could help these animals in some way or another.

Well, that thing could wait. The important thing was that Eric and Alamar knew what was happening in Hogwarts and that they were prepared to deal with whatever was coming their way.

*

> My dear friends
> 
> Life has been crazy here; a lot of things have changed. Did I tell you that my cat Artemis escaped? I thought nobody realised but Cerberus is trying to sniff her out. I’m sure he’s already hard on her trail. I’m looking forward to seeing her again, but maybe she’s happier outside?
> 
> Whatever’s going on, I just wanted to let you know that maybe you shouldn’t come visit here any time soon, with your cat allergy. I’m sure you’ll be able to smell her from everywhere in the UK. 
> 
> Anyway, I’m looking forward to talking to you again, soon. Give my love to your families and I’ll update on my lovely cat and Cerberus again as soon as there is anything to update.
> 
> Love, Minnie


	8. What's happening right now

Sorry, this isn't about the story:

I feel obligated to tell you that I am pausing this story. My country has another very hard Corona wave and this time it looks like I'm losing my job, so I need to concentrate on job hunting (like a thousand other people in my area probably). I don't know when I'm continuing, but I can't think about a story, when I'm having real life problems.

Sorry for posting this here, but I just needed to tell you so you wouldn't think I'm ignoring this story. I actually like it, but I don't have time to continue. As soon as something changes I will delete this "chapter" and give you a real one.

I hope you're doing better and stay safe and healthy everyone :)

Edit: Thank you so much for understanding! I already have something in the works, it just needs to be confirmed and then we'll see. Thank you!!! <3


	9. Final chapter here

Hey, short update:

I've realised that I was giving too many things into the Harry Potter Fandom that I coud use myself. I have started a new magic system, creature laws and courts and a story line that except for the Harry Potter characters basically has nothing in common with what JK Rowling created.

So, this will be the end of this story on this website. I am currently building my own story line and intend on using this idea for an actual book. I'm sorry if you were hoping that this would be getting some place soon. I just don't feel comfortable using the characters of another person for my own story. Especially since it has almost nothing to do with the original story of Harry Potter.

I hope you understand.

Thank you for being part of this journey, it was amazing to read all your comments. I'm glad I've started this idea.

Have a very nice day and an amazing week :) And again: Thank you so much!

Goodbye from jolly_love


End file.
